INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
The Quiet Occupation |
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by Ran HaCohen AntiWar.com Entered into the database on Wednesday, June 15th, 2005 @ 14:41:23 MST |
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What is the first picture the term "occupation" raises in our mind?
Probably some kind of extreme violence among civilians: lethal fire in the middle
of town, terrified kids in pajamas watching heavily armed soldiers searching a
house, a helicopter firing a missile in the midst of Gaza. All these violent scenes
do happen, but they do not give an adequate picture of what the occupation really
looks like. Very few people realize that Israel has turned life in the occupied territories
(Israeli settlers excluded) into complete misery without any need to fire a
single bullet. A unique, invaluable glance into the mechanisms that constitute
this "quiet" occupation, usually hidden behind the literal smokescreen
of violence, is given by the first annual report of the Israeli human rights
group Machsom Watch, presented in a press conference in Tel Aviv last week. West Bank Checkpoints: The Basics Machsom – "roadblock" in Hebrew – stands for a whole
arsenal of obstacles spread throughout the occupied territories: temporary or
permanent roadblocks, manned checkpoints or roads closed off by heavy cement
blocks, gates in the Wall, earth mounds, trenches, observation towers. The least
known but most significant fact about these various physical obstacles is that
almost all of them are NOT "border checkpoints" located between Israel
and the occupied territories; almost all of them are placed WITHIN the occupied
territories, hampering the movement from one Palestinian town or village to
another. Within the last four years – signs were clear enough in early 2002 –
Israel made every movement of every Palestinian dependent on Israeli permit.
Incredible, but true: a Palestinian wishing to get out of (or reenter) his or
her immediate surrounding – a town, a village, a neighborhood, or just
an arbitrarily cut-off part of a village – has to get a permit from Israel
in advance and show it at every Israeli-manned checkpoint. You cannot just go
to work, to do some shopping or business, to school, to visit family or friends,
to a hospital – you have to go through one or several Israeli checkpoints
first. The numbers are horrifying. The UN's Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs
(OCHA) counted in November 2004 not less than 719 (!) physical obstacles throughout
the West Bank. Machsom Watch reports that less than 70 of them were removed
in the recent "calm" period, some only to be replaced by the rapidly
progressing Wall. An army general reported that the 25 central checkpoints under
his command required 1,000 soldiers, and up to 5,000 soldiers are employed on
special alerts (Ha'aretz, July 22, 2003); no wonder the checkpoints are consistently
undermanned, resulting in endless queues. None of the more than 2 million Palestinians in the West Bank thus live more
than a couple of miles away from a roadblock or checkpoint. A short route through
the West Bank would inevitably take you through several Israeli checkpoints,
some of them five minutes' ride from each other. Lucky to have gone through
one checkpoint? The next one is just a few minutes ahead, where you'll have
to start all over again. Checkpoints are closed on Israeli, Jewish, Muslim, and other holidays and public
occasions, paralyzing Palestinian economic and social life. Machsom Watch reports
that "From March to May [2004], a closure was imposed that included full encirclement
in many areas of the West Bank. The closure started for the Passover holiday,
continued uninterrupted until Israeli Independence Day (several weeks later)
and from then to the Likud party's referendum, and it was finally lifter after
the Final Four playoff games." A Personal Aside When I was 18, I had my basic training with an Israeli infantry unit notorious
for its ferocity. The most difficult aspect of the 100 days I spent there, in
early 1983, was not the physical hardship: it was bad enough, but a piece of
cake compared to the permanent stress caused by the intentional, systematic
policy of keeping the new recruits under complete uncertainty. We had no idea
what might happen a few minutes later – would we be taken to a lecture,
a physical exercise, a meal, or moved to a remote base? We were sent to bed
late at night only to be awakened half an hour later; a weekend off at home
would be announced and withdrawn several times till Friday afternoon; and individual
soldiers would be punished for no clear reason. As my officer later told us,
the idea was to "break us down as civilians in order to rebuild us as soldiers."
At least the first part was accomplished successfully: The unbearable stress
caused many of us severe mental damage, like shock, identification with the
aggressor, or post-traumatic syndromes. Apparently, the abusive staff was not
spared either: several years later, the officer I just quoted emigrated to the
U.S., was "adopted" there by a rich elderly Jewish-American couple
enchanted by the sturdy Israeli fighter, and he is now serving a life sentence
in prison for shooting both of them to death, hoping to inherit their wealth. Through the Checkpoint Machsom Watch activists say they have seen the idea behind the checkpoints
policy actually written in a military document: Keeping the Palestinian population
under permanent uncertainty. Precisely the same principle, then, used to "break
down" recruits during basic training, is applied to an entire population,
children and adults, women and men, sick and elderly. The checkpoints are at
the heart of this policy. The moment you start a journey through the West Bank, you are no longer master
of your time. You do not know whether you'll be able to make it at all, nor
even roughly how long it will take. Due to "surprise checkpoints"
and checkpoints manned only during certain hours, you cannot even tell how many
checkpoints you'll have to go through. Any checkpoint can be closed at any time,
without prior notice nor any indication whether and when it will reopen. You
can pass three checkpoints on your way, only to be stopped at the fourth. Crossing
a checkpoint can take minutes or hours, due to unpredictable queues. The army
may also suddenly impose the notorious "Stop All Life Procedure" –
a total freeze on movement that lasts for hours at a time. Detention Even when a checkpoint is open, individuals are exposed to extreme arbitrariness
and uncertainty. Having a permit is a necessary condition to pass through the
checkpoint, but not a sufficient one. With a hardly noticeable gesture of his
or her finger, a 19-year-old soldier may decide your document needs "inspection"
and detain you. Such a detention can take 20 minutes; but it can also take several
hours, during which you have to wait in the unroofed Jora ("hole"
in Arabic, "sewage hole" in Hebrew), where you may be ordered to remain
standing, or to sit on the ground facing the wall. If you are a bus driver,
all your passengers will have to wait with you. Your document may be sent for
inspection immediately; but it may have to wait until 20 or 30 other documents
are accumulated and sent together. When it returns with an OK, you may proceed;
but some documents often get lost in the process. Who is detained? Here are some answers Machsom Watch activists got from checkpoint
soldiers: "Anyone who looks stressed" (under these circumstances,
who wouldn't?); "Every ninth man"; "Everyone called Mohammed";
"Everyone who wants to go through my checkpoint." Arbitrariness incarnate.
Many soldiers refer to detention at checkpoints as a kind of punishment or "educational
measure," and even order those in charge: "Detain this guy for a long
time." English Weather Behind this system are myriads of human beings with sometimes heartbreaking
stories – the arrested kidney patient, the beaten student. Some of these
stories clearly fall under abuse. Israel's efficiency in turning Palestinian
life into hell disappears when complaints are to be processed: out of 100 complaints
sent by Machsom Watch in 2004 to several state and army offices, 87 percent
were ignored or insufficiently answered. Two years ago, the army admitted that
out of 1,200 "inquiries" into checkpoint complaints, only 18 had led
to military police investigations; the rest – 98.5 percent – had
been shelved (Ha'aretz, July 22, 2003). But it is important not to let the cases of abuse distract from the "normal"
routine: Palestinian daily life is unbearable even on what Machsom Watch activists
call "an English weather," i.e., a usual day without any exceptional
event. If the roots of Palestinian frustration, despair, and violence –
"terrorism," if you like – are to be sought, the checkpoint
system is an excellent place to start. |