The Israelis have made it incredibly difficult to move from place to place in the West Bank, often adding hours and hours to a basic trip to a neighboring town. Mohammed, a Palestinian friend of mine who works at Augusta Victoria hospital, has to pass through 7 permanent checkpoints and countless other roadblocks in order to get home to his family in Jenin from Jerusalem. It now takes a whole day to travel, meaning that he cannot go home for the weekend. He must, instead, work a weekend so that the following weekend he can have an additional day or two off to go home. Of course he could just get a job closer to home- but there aren’t any.
The simple commute from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, only 6 miles to the south, now takes over an hour in many cases, thanks to the checkpoints.
In addition to permanent checkpoints, there are also moving checkpoints, roadblocks, and barriers that are set up by the Israelis to limit the movement of Palestinians. Israeli troops will set up random checkpoints wherever the want, but always in Palestinian territory, so as to not inconvenience any Israelis. I often saw them setting up a checkpoint in front of Augusta Victoria hospital, on the main road to Palestinian hospitals. They stop anyone and everyone they feel like, for as long as they want. The general rule is that the more you protest or question what is happening, the longer you are held.
Israeli’s have also denied Palestinian refugees the right to return even to the West Bank. I heard several stories of Palestinians who had a Palestinian fiancée or girlfriend living in a Jordanian or Lebanese refugee camp, who were not allowed to come back to be with the person the love. The only other option would be that the person still in Palestine leave- but then they might never be able to come back to see their family and friends. They told me that Israel “even controls who they can fall in love with.”
They also use these checkpoints to punish anyone who has a family member who is involved in resistance. Even if you have never been involved in violent or peaceful protest of the occupation, if you have a relative who has you might be turned back. What would you do, then, when there is a peaceful protest? If you go and participate, it might mean that you and your extended family might never be able to pass through a checkpoint again.
All these tactics serve to slow and restrict the movement of Palestinians, making it impossible to organize an effective resistance to the occupation. But what happens, as a result, is that this only leads to increased desperation.
Check out this recent BBC story about checkpoints: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6245576.stm
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1 comment:
hey, Ray! how are you doing?
Recently a friend told me that she was interested in working as a volunteer in African poor countries. Then Henrique remind me that you are the guy she needs to talk to. Well, if she insists on this project, I will make her post a comment here.
In September, I will probably (if your country gives me a visa) go to US. Precisely on September 14th. There is a congress on human development in New York from Sep. 17th to 20th. I do not know if I will be able to see you or someone else. Anyway, if you have some advice to give me about NY, it is going to be welcome.
Hope you are having a nice time wherever you are in the world (apparently, Middle East according to your post). And keep on trusting in God.
In Christ,
Thomas
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