Post
by Rian Jackson » Tue Sep 21, 2004 2:51 pm
Checkpoint behavior
By Amira Hass
Haaretz
September 2, 2004
Israel Defense Forces officers were among the first to understand the moral
danger involved in checkpoints, way before the general public in Israel was
prepared to hear about rude or even abusive behavior on the part of the soldiers.
Those in the field reported that there were instances of so-called checks
that took hours, threats, bullying of women, slaps in the face, confiscation of
books and CDs, gas grenades thrown into waiting cars, slashing tires, breaking
car windows and shooting for purposes of intimidation and deterence. This type
of behavior is not necessary from the point of view of security; on the
contrary, it simply fuels the feelings of vengeance that the Palestinians have.
That is why the officers decided to introduce seminars on how to behave at
the checkpoints. They even praise the work of the women who take part in
"Machsom Watch." But as a result, there are those who delude themselves that, if
there is correct education, it will be possible to make the checkpoints humane.
This is the same type of illusion as that held by those who in the 1970s
believed that the settlements in the territories were indeed set up for security
purposes. Those who delude themselves today like to forget that the checkpoints
are not located on the border of a sovereign state, but rather deep in the
occupied territory of the West Bank. How much military manpower - which would be
able to protect the civilian hinterland much better from the actual border -
is required for these roadblocks? Those who prefer to delude themselves that a
checkpoint can be humane ignore its role in maintaining the settlement
enterprise.
There are checkpoints where the soldiers are particularly polite, for example
at Beit El. That is where the diplomats and the various Palestinian
dignitaries, the ambulance teams and the journalists, pass through in their vehicles.
The delays there are relatively rare. Perhaps it is the sight of the polished
cars and the diplomatic passes that arouses feelings of respect on the part of
the soldiers, unlike the feeling generated by standing opposite a sweating,
unruly and dusty crowd of people.
This checkpoint - through which "regular" Palestinians like the thousands of
residents of the nearby villages cannot pass - is meant to ensure the
wellbeing of the settlers of Beit El, Ofra and Psagot and the outposts of Givat Assaf
and Migron. It is also meant to ensure the ability of the government offices
to continue expanding the settlements to create Jewish territorial contiguity
in the West Bank. That is the task of all the checkpoints deep inside the West
bank.
On the other hand, Qalandiyah is a roadblock designed to anchor, in peoples'
consciousness and on the ground, the annexation to Israel of a large area east
of the Green Line. Stuck between a-Ram, a densely populated Palestinian
suburb and the villages to its west, and the area of Ramallah, it creates two
isolated Bantustans. Other roadblocks of annexation that are located a distance
from the Green Line - and become fixed in consciousness as "a border line" - were
set up, for example, east of the Triangle town of Taibe, south of Qalqilyah
at the the "fruit junction," on the Givat Ze'ev-Modi'in road (the Harbata
roadblock) or at Houssan (to serve Upper Betar).
The soldiers can study appropriate behavior at dozens of seminars, but their
objective will not change: to ensure the regime of excessive rights for the
Jews - basically the sole right of the Jews to move from Tel Aviv and to live in
the West Bank while the Palestinians are not permitted to move and live in
Tel Aviv.
In order to challenge the immoral principles of this reality, the soldiers
have to deal with the conventions, explanations and excuses of Israeli society.
This is a difficult task for 50-year-olds, so why should it be possible for
those who were born 17 years after the occupation of the territories? If the
soldiers were to treat those passing through the roadblocks like equal human
beings, they might be forced to ask questions about their own service.
In a society where to be "nuts about the army" is a positive phrase, only a
handful dare to translate the moral questions into refusal that entails
imprisonment. Numerous others avoid service in less publicized ways. The majority,
who continue to serve at the raodblocks, young and old, can not help but
internalize the psychology of superiority of the regime of excessive rights. In other
words, they consider the thousands of Palestinians who pass by as being
entitled to less than the Jews, that is to say, as being inferior - and therefore
the address for all types of degradation.
surlier than thou
