The closure of Hebron - A regular shift at a checkpoint

6th September, 2004

Today I had a shift at the new checkpoint under the bridge connecting Hebron and Beit Kahil.
Following the suicide bombing, IDF's high command has given orders to put Hebron under full closure. That means that no one can get in or out of the city without being checked by IDF.

The bridge of Beit Kahil was one of the roads leading out of Hebron and it had to be checked 24 hours a day. Everyday, early in the morning, there were 200-300 people waiting at both sides of the bridge, hoping to cross. Doctors and children were given passage immediately. The rest had to wait in line and be checked. Far not everyone was allowed to cross.

The checkpoint wasn't 100% effective. Dozens crossed the Israeli road above and alongside the bridge without a problem. To prevent anyone from getting in and out of the city, you would have to position a few hundred soldiers alongside the road, physically covering the whole northern part of Hebron. But there we were, blocking passage under the bridge as if suspects and militants would choose to come straight to us.





















At first there was a DCO guy with us. He kept yelling in Arabic, aiming with his weapon and giving orders. Raleb and Kobi did the same thing. I talked to some Palestinians and they obeyed me and turned back without me having to yell at them. I guess there was enough yelling already. Wouldn't they obey without all the yelling and gun-pointing?

Or and Raleb went up the bridge and prevented people from alternatively crossing it. Raleb, according to Or's enthusiastic story-telling, pushed people, grabbed them by their neckties, aimed his weapon at their foreheads within close range while yelling at them. "Are you fucking with me? Don't you see that everyone else is waiting in line at the checkpoint?!"

But they weren't up there all day. The moment they left the place and went back to the checkpoint, a new wave of citizens began crossing over without being checked. It was useless. Wouldn't we have done the same? Probably. But then they would've done the same in our place as well.

At noon, at around 1:30pm, kids crossed the checkpoint. They were coming back from school. They were cute, smiling. There were two kids that didn't look like Palestinians at all - a blonde girl and a blonde boy. They had bright-white skin. That was a rare thing to me.

The building around us were rich villas. The kind of houses that an average Israeli citizen could not afford to own. But Palestinians are excellent builders, or so they say, so it doesn't cost them that much.

Some Palestinians carried goods. There were flour bags with "USA" entitled on them, other flour bags that came from "UNRWA" with a Japanese flag on them. There were cement bags with USA's Target trademark on them. They all passed through the checkpoint. Most Palestinians were carrying black plastic bags with them.

There was a woman that tried to cross the road alongside the bridge quite close to us. Kobi told her to go back, but she refused and started running towards the other side. She stumbled onto some wires and fell down. Then she stood up, but this time she was just walking ahead. Kobi shouted: "Allo! Allo!" even though she was already quite far away. She heard him and started running again until she reached one of the houses on the other side. Kobi burst into laughter.

After a short while, TIPH guys came to the checkpoint and wanted to cross, but we didn't let them. They were taking notes all the time and even threatened us that they'll file a charge against us for not letting them pass.

One guy came with a truck full of tomatoes. He offered us tomatoes in exchange for his passage, but that didn't really work and he had to go back to Beit Kahil.

Apart from all the yelling, the gun-pointing, the chasing, the necktie grabbing, I haven't witnessed any violence there. No one was beat up or shot at. At times there was a friendly atmosphere, Palestinians were joking with us, everyone was laughing - something pleasant for a change.

There were also Palestinians who spoke Russian. They told me they studied Medicine at Russian universities. It was nice to talk to them in Russian.

The 10 hours at the roadblock were horrible. The job was not boring, the opposite - it was too intense. You had to be on your feet all the time, talking, listening to people's problems, checking documents, vehicles, bags, maintaining order and so on. I had head ache from the tight casket, my back was in pain from all the heavy equipment, especially the ceramic vest. My legs were praying for some rest...

We were replaced in the evening, until the morning. I write this instead of going to bed, cause I don't want to forget anything.

I can't imagine myself having to stand in that damn roadblock everyday for like 10 hours.

I called my Mom. She told me there are still no tickets for September 13th and the waiting list is full! My ticket is only for 5 and a half days in Germany, 14-20/9.

I have to do something about it! I have to change the dates!

There was a flight from 14th until 21st to Frankfurt and from 15th to 22nd to Munich (closer to Regensburg, the city where Angel resides). I don't know if tickets are available. I asked Lital if I could change the dates. She said I could.

Lital is very beautiful and is extremely nice. Normally, I would've had a crush on someone like her, but now that I have Angel, I'm resistant to any kind of attraction.

I also talked to Yair. He said that most likely I'll be able to change the dates to 14-21/9 and 15-22/9. Yay!

A mute witness

31st July, 2004

(1) On our way to the gas station we saw an abandoned car on the road. A police truck came and tucked it away saying that it was a stolen vehicle.

















(2) On our way back, Oleg, the AV driver had suddenly lost control of the steering wheel as he approached a curve while driving too fast. We went off the road, but lucky for us the hummer didn't hit anything, and we could resume our patrol.

(3) Matan, Oren and Oleg decided to drive to a Palestinian grapevine to steal some grapes. I remember a few days ago when I was in Adora Oleg brought a lot of green grapes to the house and one of the lieutenants asked him where he had taken it from. He claimed he'd taken it from the neighboring houses in Adora (there are indeed some places in Adora where you can see grapes growing outside the gardens, covering the walls, free for the taking) but this version didn't seem to stick, because the grapes in Adora needed at least another month to look like the ones he had brought with him. Now I'm convinced that he lied, that it's not the first time he steals grapes from Palestinians along with a commander and other soldiers (a commander is always present in the AV)

All I could do is sit in the backseat of the AV and watch them steal. Any comment on their behavior would be regarded as leftist. I was trapped: I could either sit and do nothing, which is like taking part in their theft, or I could tell all about it to an officer of a higher rank, and be regarded as an informant which may end up being far worse. The one thing I did do was take pictures of it.
















































The problem is, these soldiers don't see it as a crime. They're like the same kids they were at school - excited at causing some damage, at doing something illegal. There's one thing that they forget - they're not kids anymore, they wear an IDF uniform and they represent the Israeli army and Israel as a whole. They're no longer free individuals and they must abide by the rules of the organization they're a part of. That is mostly why IDF looks the way it does - individuality.

They don't think about the consequences of their actions or of what the other side must feel like. I can imagine what would happen if a Palestinian stole fruits from Israeli settlers... What can Palestinians do when they see armed soldiers walking on their property and taking whatever they want? There were several kids, women and old men looking at us as Oleg drove further into the vineyard to get some more grapes of a higher quality. I guess that's when Matan felt a bit of shame and decided against stealing in front of these people.

(4) We did a random checkpost on a narrow Palestinian road in order to check some cars. A TIPH car came. TIPH - Temporary International Presence in Hebron - these are guys with cameras who watch IDF soldiers carefully to see if we commit any injustices towards the Palestinian population. Soldiers hate them, but something tells me this hatred is genuine. There are many organizations of that kind in the territories. This is just a local one.
































(5) Yesterday we saw 2 ambulances pass by. Our lieutenant stopped them with his jeep in order to check them out. It's said that sometimes Palestinians use ambulances to smuggle terrorists and weapons from one place to another. Not today - the medical team said there was a traffic accident in Hidna in which 4 people were smashed to death.

(6) We arrived at a big house (or perhaps a small mansion) at the entrance of Halhoul, just above the bridge connecting the 2 cities. This big house was more like a safehouse for a Palestinian family that cooperates with IDF. This is something real strange: They live on the first floor and the other floors are populated by soldiers who watch over Hebron and Halhoul.
I had to patrol in the garden and the terrace with another soldier. It was a beautiful garden with a fountain, a marble-made floor and beautifully carved stone walls. I felt like a bodyguard of a mafia mob!

















We've waited until the plumber fixed the pipes and then left.

(7) We did another checkpost on the bridge between the two cities. We've been standing there for an hour while Matan and Tal (another commander from the nearby pillbox) checked 2 lanes full of cars. It doesn't matter what was its purpose, obviously the frustration of the mile-long line of cars along with hundreds of pedestrians weren't worth it. Dozens of Palestinians left the cars and started walking by foot.

We didn't find any kind of suspects or criminals among the Palestinians, but we surely gave them a good reason to create some. Why do we check IDs and cars on a road that leads from one Palestinian city to another? (Especially when it's completely ineffective as there are a hundred alternatives routes that connect the two cities which Palestinians use on a daily basis)

















Sometimes I don't understand the decisions that our officers make. But then I'm just an ordinary soldier - they don't owe me an explanation. They give me orders and I have to carry them out. Unless the order involves committing violence towards an unarmed civilian or any other illegal actions that count as illegal in IDF's ethical code, I must obey at all times.