No one is there to draw the line

8th September, 2004

The dates 14-21/09 have been authorized, but there are currently no tickets available for my flight back, on 21st. I've been added to the waiting list. For now I'm scheduled to fly back to Israel on 20th. I hope that the ticket becomes available though. An extra day with her sounds like a priceless treasure.

11th September, 2004

Angel e-mailed me a few times during the last few days. I also sent her SMS messages now that her phone's finally turned on. (Her mother's upset at the monthly bills of her daughter's cellphone. Angel likes to talk a lot with her friends over the phone...)

She said I could call her in the evenings, but I tried and her phone seems to be turned off all the time.

* * * * *

Me, Rami, Tzahi and Matan are in the 2nd pillbox since yesterday. It's the one that is overlooking the bridge between Hebron and Halhoul. Barbed wire is blocking the passage for cars and pedestrians alike. Nobody is allowed to pass, except for children. But the fact that nobody's allowed to pass doesn't mean that no one's trying to.































I've always wondered why soldiers keep shouting loudly and behaving aggressively whenever they want someone to obey them. Palestinians are people like all of us, they can understand you even if you use a lower tone of voice. Can't they?

During my shift there was a woman that tried to cross the bridge. It was my turn to turn people back. I took the megaphone and tried to attract her attention by calmly addressing her: "excuse me, lady, but you're not allowed to cross here. Please go back..... lady?" Matan started laughing at how pathetically it looked. She didn't bother listening to me and kept walking ahead towards Hebron. Matan took the megaphone and shouted at her to go back.

I guess sometimes you just don't have a choice. You have to use some sort of aggression to get people to listen to you. As a soldier, you can't always be nice. Some people might use it against you. It happens all the time.

But what if being nice is part of my character?

Tzahi seems to like yelling at Palestinians and give away orders. Never mind the fact that he's not even a commander, but a very young and inexperienced soldier who'd talked to a Palestinian for the first time in his life just less than a month ago.

Some people love being in command of others. It gives a boost to their self-confidence.

When a crowd of 20-25 year old women tried to cross the bridge despite Matan's repetitive calls to turn back, he and Rami ran out of the pillbox and on to the bridge. Rami took a magazine of blank bullets with him. Tzahi stayed at the top with me. "Now, watch and learn" he bragged. He took my M-16 ouf of the window and loaded it. A shot was heard! It was Matan. Women were running in panic in both directions. Schoolkids that were crossing the bridge started running as well.

Was it necessary to use violence? Wouldn't they have turned back anyway after seeing the soldiers blocking their way? I cannot say for sure. Yet I think all the peaceful methods should be attempted before turning to violence.

The bridge was closed and no one was allowed to cross, except children. But only 200 meters to the east, you could see Palestinians freely crossing the road . Sometimes the AV patrol would catch them, the soldiers would fire some rubber bullets for a while, then leave. A minute later, the traffic would resume.

Matan told us that one time, he and Yoav chased the Palestinians there, firing rubber bullets and hitting people while they were fleeing. He talked about it with such pride, as if it was one of the best things he had ever done.

After a while, Gil arrived in his jeep. While visiting the pillbox he gave us one romme. (romme is a metallic cylinder that you attach to the barrel of your rifle. It allows you to shoot rubber bullets. You put a small pack of three rubber cylinders inside, load your weapon with blanks and fire.)

Matan said that he'll fire one rubber bullet instead of three and that if anyone asks us, he fired a pack of three. (a pack of three bullets are used in order to lower its speed and therefore minimize the damage caused by the bullet. IDF forbids using a single bullet instead of a pack of three. These bullets must not be used within a close range as they are capable of killing.) Matan says that a pack of three barely hurts, while a single bullet is very painful and leaves a mark that will make sure they would no longer dare to cross the road during closure.

"Why 1? Why not 3?" I asked him.
"What a leftist!" he replied to me with a disrespectful smile.
"What would you do if people get hurt and need to get to a hospital? There's closure."
"Oh, don't be such a leftist! The bridge is closed, and so far there have been no emergencies."
If being humane is called being a leftist, then I'm proud to be one.

Gil gave Matan new orders - not to let anyone cross the bridge, not even schoolkids!

Tzahi is dying to shoot Palestinians with rubber bullets. He keeps asking Matan for permission to start shooting. ARGH!?!?!?!?! He's standing there, watching Palestinians with binoculars. He said: "I'm marking my target."

Why are they here, serving in the territories? Who gave them weapons and license to act on free will? Why do people enjoy shooting other people?! It's not a video game, but real people!!!!!

The same goes for Palestinians. If they'd been given weapons, I'm sure some of them would love to shoot Israelis.

Sigh... No respect for human life.

Every action has a consequence

7th September, 2004

Great news - The commander of our regiment signed the form. Tickets are available! Which one should I choose? 14-21/9? or 15-22/9? The latter costs much more. I need to consult with Angel, but she's changed her cellphone so I can't talk to her about it for now. I guess I'll order 14-21/9...

Another shift at the checkpoint of Beit Kahil. The Safari took us to the bridge. As we arrived, a crowd of approx. 500 Palestinians were waiting there, on their way from Beit Kahil to Hebron. We replaced the soldiers who were here during the night shift and then started working.

Raleb tried to make the crowd form 4 lines so they could be checked one by one. They keep pushing each other, each trying to get ahead of the others and reach us to be checked first and pass as fast as possible. Being rude and selfish is always the fastest way to get ahead in line and pass a checkpoint without having to wait an average of 2-3 hours. Dozens were shouting and waving, trying to attract our attention to them so that they would be checked first. Everyone had his own story and reasons why he should be the first to be checked.

Raleb is a Druze officer so it's no wonder he knows Arabic. Palestinians don't know it. Most soldiers don't know the language and Palestinians are not afraid to say whatever they want in Arabic in front of us, so Raleb heard all kinds of things. He caught some in their lies, caught others who planned to go around the checkpoint after being told to turn back and head home.

When Raleb realized he couldn't make 500 Palestinians listen to him and stand in 2 lines, he said: "I won't be checking anyone. Not until you form 4 straight lines in front of me."

One Palestinian heard him and decided to help us form 4 lines, for the sake of his own friends. He became our translator. He addressed the crowd and asked them to form 2 lines of men and 2 of women. Part of the crowd listened to his words, others were still standing scattered all over the place. Raleb was not satisfied.

A moment later Gil, the battery commander, arrived in his jeep along with his driver and a medic. They were standing on the bridge above us. One of them threw a shock grenade at the crowd. Then they started firing empty bullets in the air. (What the f**k was that for?!) The crowd quickly dispersed, everyone was running back to Beit Kahil.

A minute or two later most of them were back at the checkpoint. Oren and the jeep's driver easily managed to form a queue of 2 rows each, by physically cutting through the crowd and splitting them apart. We started checking them, and after a short while whoever was allowed to enter Hebron was inside the city. The remaining crowd contained Hebron workers, hospital visitors and university students. The people who were allowed to pass were doctors, schoolkids and teachers. The Palestinian press was present. They photographed everything.

A patrol of two soldiers on and around the bridge prevented Palestinians from skipping the checkpoint. That's probably why there were so many Palestinians at the checkpoint today. There were still a few guys who crossed the road a few hundred meters away, out of our reach. There wasn't much we could do about it.

Me and Daniel went up there to switch places with the patrol. It was very hot up there, no shade to hide ourselves from the sun. We took 2 bottles of water with us. A 16 year old girl was heading our way from Hebron. She was holding hands with a 4 year old girl. They wanted to cross the road and go home. She kept talking to us in Arabic, trying to explain something, but we couldn't understand a word she was saying. We tried both Hebrew and English, but her reaction was the same as ours. We used the radio comm. to ask if she's allowed to pass, but Kobi gave us a negative answer. (Why? She's just a schoolgirl.)

She was only allowed to pass through the checkpoint. She tried to explain to me and Daniel that she lives right across the road. The road cuts through the hill. South and below the road is where Hebron lies. North and above the road is where Beit Kahil is located. We could see a woman in one of the houses on the hill waving to the girl. It was really close. But going around is just extra ~300 meters of walking.

Unfortunately, we couldn't let her pass. I could understand her point of view, and I could understand Kobi's point of view as well. If we let her pass, other Palestinians who keep standing on both sides of the road would be heading this way and trying to pass like she did.

But wait, they're just 2 schoolgirls. Schoolkids are always allowed to pass through the checkpoint ahead of the others, so why not allow them to skip the checkpoint in the first place?

Orders were still orders. We couldn't let her pass. We kept arguing with her and speaking 2 different languages without understanding each other. I couldn't shout at her, I can't shout at girls at all, lol. Eventually she realized it was useless. She gave up and went back down to the checkpoint and then up the hill back to her home.

I wish I had let her pass. Maybe I should have done so... Maybe I shouldn't have contacted Kobi.

A while later there were two more schoolgirls who tried to pass at the same place. This time we let them. :)

A few minutes later we noticed two 4-6 year old girls standing on the edge of the hill, right above the road. They were shouting something to us, trying to draw our attention. At first it looked like they were just trying to entertain us by jumping and clapping hands, but then things started to be a bit more shocking for us...

The 2 little girls were showing their middle fingers at us. We couldn't tell what they were shouting, but it may have been cursing. Then they picked stones and started throwing them at us. Fortunately, they were just 2 little girls who couldn't throw a stone further than a few meters. The stones could not reach us, they fell on the road... The road! Then I noticed that they were throwing some stones down on the road. An Israeli car was just passing by on the right lane, the one closer to the girls. Just as it was about to pass, one of the girls lifted a relatively large stone and threw it down the hill. The stone fell down, rolled a bit and then jumped on the road almost hitting the car!

I was shocked! We started running a few meters ahead just to scare them away and they ran away. After a while they came back, but did nothing dangerous this time. A while later they went home.

Daniel later told me that while he was checking people in the checkpoint, there was one woman who wouldn't give him identification papers. He kept asking her over and over again, but she kept mumbling something he couldn't quite understand. Then she simply showed him - She had no hands! He was shocked! He apologized to her and let her pass.

In the evening we were finally replaced. The Safari had to refuel so it took us to some base East of Hebron. On our way there, we stopped at some point on the road between Halhoul and Hebron. There was a small path leading from Hebron across the Israeli road to large grove fields east of Halhoul. Dozens of Palestinians were walking there, despite the closure. Raleb and Oren walked out of the Safari joined by the AV, and dispersed the crowd by shooting empty bullets in the air. They enjoyed it and laughed with each other. But there was nothing pleasant in seeing women and children running scared and hiding in the fields afraid to get shot.

The AV driver walked out of the vehicle and fired some rubber bullets at the crowd that was already quite far away, forcing them to keep running further away. The driver then laughed in enjoyment. He isn't even a combat soldier and he isn't allowed to shoot at all, unless his life is in danger. There were other soldiers there who participated in the shooting. Some of them were shooting in the air, others were aiming at the crowd. The crowd doesn't know whether it's real bullets, rubber bullets, or just empty shells.

I'm absolutely certain that after we'd left the place the traffic resumed. What good did it do? Did they do it for entertainment? Is it going to prevent militants from going in and out of Hebron? I kinda tend to think that it might only cause the opposite. More hatred, more suffering, more militants.

The word "Defense" in Israeli Defense Forces is not always that accurate. There's always enough idiots who forget why they serve in IDF in the first place.