"Stopping" Watch

The small, almost frail woman who served us tea and lovely Pesach (Passover)cookies was at least seventy years old. But it soon became clear that she was remarkably active in opposing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

Hannah Barag is one of the leaders of the Israeli women’s movement called Machsom Watch, which monitors what the Israeli army calls "checkpoints" within the West Bank. The word "machsom" in Hebrew is usually translated into English as "checkpoint," but Hannah told us that in Hebrew it really means, "to stop." And this is what the Israeli checkpoints really are, Hannah said. They are a way of stopping Palestinians, as they move around within the West Bank going to work, to school, to visit family and friends, and to obtain medical care.

Machsom Watch began in February 2001. As four Israeli women were having tea one afternoon, they began to talk about the Intifada. They knew that there was a "machsom" outside Bethlehem, where Palestinians had to present the proper identification in order to pass through to enter Jerusalem, or to return from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. Curious, the women decided to walk down to Bethlehem from the homes on the south side of West Jerusalem, in order to see for themselves.

What they saw that afternoon led them to begin what has become a 500 member organization of Israeli women. Machsom Watch is not a feminist organization, Hannah explained, but it is limited to women, because Israeli men have been too affected by their experience in the Israeli army. Like many of the women in Machsom Watch, she also served in the army. But she feels that Israeli women have been more successful in recovering from that dehumanizing experience than have Israeli men.

The Jewish Israeli women that began Machsom Watch included a woman who had experience in South America, and several women working with Women in Black, which sponsors weekly demonstrations that call for an end to the occupation of the West Bank. In the beginning these women went only once a day to the checkpoints near Jerusalem a day. Their purpose was to watch and to note what they saw. They knew they hadn’t realized what was happening at these checkpoints, so they simply intended to tell other Israelis what they saw.

"Machsom Watch is not a pro Palestinian organization," Hannah emphasized. The motivation of the founders was not political. They were opposed to the occupation of the West Bank, but they did not intend to support a two-state solution or any particular political agenda. They were moved to form Machsom Watch, because it became clear to them, as they watched the Israeli soldiers harass and humiliate the Palestinians at the Bethlehem checkpoint, that the occupation being carried out in their name, as Israelis, was wrong.

It was wrong because it denied the basic human dignity of the Palestinians, and this means that checkpoints are a continuing cause for violations of human rights. But the checkpoints were also wrong because administering them was corrupting Israeli society. The occupation of the West Bank (some call Palestine and others describe legally as the "Occupied Territories") is immoral and inhumane, not only for the Palestinians forced to endure it, but also for the Israelis required to administer it.

"Please be clear about this," Hannah said. "Yes, we were sorry to see what was happening to Palestinians. But we were appalled that this was being done in our name as Israelis, and that our young people were engaged daily in harassing and humiliating Palestinians. We formed Machsom Watch not as a way of supporting Palestinians and their political objectives, but as a way of trying to show Israelis that the occupation of the West Bank was destroying the moral character of Israeli society."

Once they were aware of what was happening, the women who formed Machsom Watch felt responsible, for they were members of a democratic society. "We couldn’t ignore what we knew. We had to do something to try to change what was so obviously unjust and destructive."

After observing the face of the occupation at the checkpoints near Jerusalem for several months, the women who initiated Machsom Watch realized that they were aware only of the most obvious manifestations of the occupation. So, three Israeli women went into the West Bank, to visit other checkpoints.

They began to realize that the fixed checkpoints were only part of a system that made life difficult for Palestinians by restricting their movement within the West Bank. They saw what are called "flying checkpoints," which Israeli soldiers set up along a highway or a street, whenever they wish, without notice. Traffic is backed up, and people have to wait, sometimes for hours. They also saw that mounds of dirt had been used to block roads and streets, so Palestinians could not drive through, but had to walk over the mound of dirt (or mud during the rainy season) and then change vehicles to get to where they were going.

In addition, they learned that checkpoints are not simply used to check identification papers, but to close areas, without any notice to the people who are in these areas. If the people are home, they can’t leave, and go to work or to school or to shop. If people are away from home, they can’t go back home until the Israeli army opens the checkpoint. There will be no public announcement that the closure has ended. They simply have to rely on word of mouth, phone calls to friends, or going to see for themselves

As the women of Machsom Watch continued to visit checkpoints, they not only noted human rights violations and the way that Palestinians were harassed and humiliated, as they were held up, searched, questioned, and sometimes detained by the Israeli army. They began to understand how the occupation uses its rules and procedures and structure to oppress the Palestinians.

"The checkpoints are not about security, despite the claims of the Israeli government," Hannah said. This is clear because, in the first place, the checkpoints are not along the border between Israel and the West Bank, but are mostly within the West Bank. The checkpoints do not screen Palestinians as they try to enter Israel from the West Bank (which is defined by the 1967 border now known as the Green Line), but instead interfere with their movement within the West Bank.

Second, checkpoints are not about simply looking for weapons or explosives, but are a way of administering a system that requires Palestinians to have identification papers in order to move around within the West Bank. This is not like carrying a passport to move between one country and another country, which is perfectly reasonable. In the occupation, however, Palestinians have to obtain identification papers from the Israeli government, which then checks on them as they are move around within the West Bank, the area that is supposed to be their own territory.

Under the Oslo agreements, the West Bank was divided into three regions, each with different administrative arrangements. Area A was to be solely administered by the Palestinian Authority. Area B was to be administered jointly by Israelis and Palestinians. And Area C was left to the control of the Israeli army. All these areas, we need to remember, involve land that Israel occupied after the 1967 war.

Now that the Oslo agreements have broken down, the Israeli army goes into Area A as well as doing what it likes in Areas B and C. But the problem, which Machsom Watch has extensively documented, is that Palestinians are required to have proper identification to move between these administrative areas on the West Bank. And this bureaucratic requirement for holding the proper paperwork in order to move around in your own community is what makes the occupation, and the checkpoints enforcing it, so oppressive for the Palestinians. (And so corrupting for the Israelis who are administering this inhumane system.)

To obtain the proper papers Palestinians have to go where the District Commanding Officer has his office, which is usually in an Israeli army base. If a Palestinian has his identification paper stolen by another Palestinian, or more likely has it confiscated by an Israeli soldier (or a Jewish settler), then he lacks the ability to move around in order to obtain new papers.

Or if someone is fined, for a traffic violation in Area C, that person has to go the District Commanding Officer’s headquarter to pay the fine. But he can’t get there, because he can’t go into the army base where the office is located. Moreover, he probably doesn’t read Hebrew, and citations and instructions concerning what to do to pay a fine, or obtain new identification papers, are in Hebrew. Even if he wants to cooperate, therefore, he may not know how.

As the women of Machsom Watch began to realize that the occupation was creating problems for Palestinians that they couldn’t solve, they began intervening as well as watching. Now they go with Palestinians in order to get them into army bases, so they can process the paperwork the occupation requires of them. They also cooperate with Palestinians, who have to pay fines, by collecting the money from the Palestinians, going into the DCO headquarters, paying the fines for the Palestinians, and then bringing them the receipts.

This kind of intervention, however, creates a moral dilemma for the women of Machsom Watch. They oppose the occupation, and they document how it violates the human rights of Palestinians and corrupts the Israelis who are held responsible for administering the system. But when they intervene to resolve the particular problem that a Palestinian is having, in a sense they are not challenging the system but helping to maintain it.

"In Machsom Watch," Hannah says, "we have an ongoing debate about whether we should only fight to stop the occupation, or whether we should try to make it more humane. Most of us feel, if you can’t stop it, that you should at least try to help the people who are victimized by it." So, she and other leaders have developed contacts with all the DCOs, as the commanding officers are called, and with army officials all the way to the top of the system. Now, when there are problems, the women of Machsom Watch first call the DCO for the checkpoint to try to solve it.

Hannah gave one recent example. A Palestinian man driving a car that was registered to his company was prevented from going through a checkpoint, because the car registration listed the name of the employee of the company who regularly drove the car, rather than the owner. The soldiers who told the man he couldn’t pass were following the rules. Names on the personal ID and the vehicle ID had to match. The fact that the car belonged to the driver, because he owned the company, did not solve the problem.

The man had passed through two checkpoints without being properly checked, had done his business, and was on his way home. He was told he could not return home, because his papers were not in order. "It took four hours and fifty phone calls," Hannah said, "to get this man through the checkpoint, so he could go home." It was the beginning of Pesach, so she had to call army commanders and their superior officers at home, until she finally found someone who would take the responsibility to tell the soldiers at the checkpoint they could let the man through.

The construction of the Separation Barrier is exacerbating the problems Palestinians have in getting around within the West Bank. As she has monitored the checkpoint near Abu Dis, which is a southeastern suburb of Jerusalem, Hannah has seen a number of cases where a wife will have a Jerusalem ID and her husband only a West Bank ID. If they are living on the "outside" of the Separation Wall, she can go to Jerusalem but he cannot. If their home is on the "inside" of the Separation Wall, he cannot go home, because he lacks the proper papers.

People in areas "inside" the Separation Wall, that are effectively being annexed to Jerusalem, may not only wake up to find that they are "illegal" under Israeli law in their own homes, because they lack the proper papers to remain in the area. They may also discover that they cannot drive their car. For if it has an Israeli license plate, but the owner has a driver’s license issued by the Palestinian Authority, which is very common in areas around Jerusalem, once the area is annexed to Jerusalem the man will not be legally able to drive his car.

"Taxi drivers," Hannah said, "are particularly vulnerable in this crazy system." If they are fined, they may not be able to go where they have to go to pay the fine. Delays at checkpoints cost them time and money, in gasoline burned. Recently, Hannah said, a taxi driver was approaching a flying checkpoint and, by mistake, hit the accelerator instead of the break. He crashed into a soldier, and the other soldiers at the flying checkpoint opened fire, killing not only the taxi driver, but also the injured soldier.

"This was first reported in the newspaper as at attach by the taxi driver on the soldier, who was supposedly killed by the car. But there was a witness, who verified that the other soldiers killed both the injured soldier and the car, and that the taxi driver had apparently not seen the flying checkpoint until he had to react very quickly and made a mistake in doing so."

Age limitations imposed at checkpoints also cause problems for many Palestinians. These rules are applied without notice, and the ages may be changed. Young men, in particular, are often not allowed to pass, even if they have the proper identification papers. Also, in some areas deemed to be a higher security risk a magnetic card is required in addition to the regular identification document. These cards also have to be obtained from the DCO office, and therefore require travel and some use of Hebrew. Moreover, if any family member has a police record, a person will not be given a magnetic card. And in administering this rule, all members of the extended family are considered "family."

Because people can be arrested on suspicion without any showing of probable cause, and because the extended families of Palestinians are large, an individual may find he is unable to obtain a magnetic card because of a relative he doesn’t even know, who has done nothing wrong but nonetheless has been arrested. The result is that many young people cannot obtain the magnetic card they need to move around, and so they cannot go to schools or look for work outside a very restricted area.

The system does offer a solution to these young people, and that is to collaborate with the Israeli army by reporting on their family and friends. As those who collaborate must provide information in order to keep their magnetic cards, it follows that that people are constantly being arrested and detained for no good reason, and often never know why this has happened to them. In Areas B and C, the army has the authority to detain and keep adults in prison without charging them for as long as they deem necessary. And it can detain children for 16 days without allowing them any visitors or a lawyer. These are the laws the Israeli army imposes on Areas B and C of the West Bank.

It took about two years, Hannah, said, before the Israeli army realized that there were "civil eyes" watching and reporting at the checkpoints. Army staff members do not like Machsom Watch, and the soldiers are sometimes rude and abusive to the women who are watching them. But working relationships have developed. Moreover, Hannah believes, there have been some positive changes. "Although soldiers at the checkpoints continue to be verbally abusive and engage in unacceptable behavior, now there is almost no physical violence as there was when we first began Machsom Watch."

The system managed by the army, however, has become more adept at making it harder for the women of Machsom Watch to observe what is going on. Flying checkpoints are much more common now, and no one knows where or when these will be set up. (I recently had to pass through five flying checkpoints during a thirty-mile trip from Yanoun to the outskirts of Ramallah. Only jumping the line of vehicles and showing my US passport prevented me from waiting hours in the long lines of traffic that had formed behind these flying checkpoints.)

Also, the Israeli army closes areas for security reasons, which gives it the authority to prevent women from Machsom Watch from entering the area. The army must have the proper orders to do this, so the women demand to see written orders before they accept such a closure. Moreover, they report these closures, and often use their own observations to challenge the reasons given for such closures. One checkpoint north of Nablus, Hannah said, has always been closed.

The relationship on the West Bank between the Jewish settlers and the Israeli army is close, because many of the settlers are serving in the army units based near the settlements. Permanent checkpoints are usually located near large settlements, which means that Jewish settlers are to be found at these checkpoints, as well as Palestinians and soldiers in the Israeli army.

It is rare for soldiers to harass the members of Machsom Watch, but settlers have become more and more abusive. Women have even been physically attacked, and settlers often make false reports to the Israeli police that members of Machsom Watch have attacked them. (The army can’t arrest civilians, which gives free reign to the settlers in Areas B and C. The Israeli police have the authority to arrest civilians in these areas.) The women of Machsom Watch are all committed to non-violence and mostly older. Generally, Hannah said, they even refrain from using harsh language in response in the foul language heaped on them by the Jewish settlers.

Settlers also harass and attack Palestinians around the checkpoints, and usually the police are not present to make arrests. To address this problem women in Machsom Watch have formed a separate but related NGO, which sends people go into Palestinian villages to take testimony from those who have been harassed and attacked. This organization also helps Palestinian victims of settler abuse get into police stations to file complaints (in Hebrew) against their attackers.

Hannah said she does this kind of work in Hebron, which has taken her into areas where it was illegal for an Israeli to go, and put her at risk of being prosecuted. Ironically, in addition to fearing both the Israeli settlers and Israeli police in Hebron, she also fears the fundamentalist Muslims who are so dominant in that city.

Why?

"The occupation has become a system of oppression," Hannah said. "Most Israelis don’t understand this, because they don’t want to know about it." She used a homely simile to explain why the Israeli government is pursuing this unjust policy. "Like a man, who has agreed to marry an ugly women because she has a large dowry, Israel wants the dowry, but not the bride." The system involving the checkpoints, the settlements, the confiscation of land, and the requirements about paperwork required of the Palestinians is designed to pressure Palestinians into leaving. "The bureaucracy of occupation is meant to make the people go away," Hannah said.

When I asked if this system wasn’t designed to maintain security for Israelis, Hannah replied, "The checkpoints don’t prevent terrorism, but create it." In the experience of the women of Machsom Watch, many of the stories published in the newspapers about capturing terrorists at checkpoints are propaganda and not factual. For instance, the Israeli army has put out reports of youth carrying explosives through the checkpoints, but Machsom Watch has only been able to verify one such case. And in this instance, the youth was retarded and manipulated by an adult.

"He is in jail," she said, "and the life of his family is ruined, because all his relatives are now unable to obtain the identification papers required to move around within the West Bank."

The entire occupation makes the lives of Palestinians miserable, and is intended to do that, Hannah said. The taking of Palestinian land by the Israeli army to build the Separation Barrier is terrible. And the taking of Palestinian land by the Jewish settlers for their houses and outposts and olive groves and sheep is criminal. And the administrative nightmare imposed on all Palestinians requiring proper identification for movement within the West Bank, all these rules and impositions make life miserable for Palestinians.

But these hostile acts only affect some Palestinians directly. The jewels of the occupation system are the checkpoints. For these checkpoints subject all Palestinians to harassment and humiliation, as well as simply make their lives so much more difficult. "The checkpoints are the most oppressive part of this system," Hannah said, "for they affect everyone."

Machsom Watch publishes monthly reports in Hebrew and English, and it is about to publish its annual report. It does all its work without employees, for it is completely a volunteer organization. The women who monitor checkpoints and write reports are not reimbursed for their travel costs, or for their many telephone calls, or for their time. Contributions to Machsom Watch cover the costs of maintaining its web site and publishing its reports.

Bob Traer, 29 April 2005

I am writing as a participant in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel, which is sponsored by the World Council of Churches. The views expressed above are my own and do not necessarily represent the World Council of Churches. If you wish to publish or disseminate this letter beyond personal friends, please contact the EAPPI Communications Officer (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission to do so. Thank you.

To visit the web site of Machsom Watch, go to http://machsomwatch.org  

For other Letters from Jerusalem, go to http://christian-bible.com/Ethics/lj.letters.2005.htm. 

Home   Exegesis   Scripture   Worship   Ethics   Dialogue   Parables   Email   

1 in Faith: A Christian Bible Study † Copyright © 2000 by Robert Traer