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'The Silent Sabotage of Palestinian Livelihood'
Nadeem skriver på KABOBfest om den konstante spidsrod af ventetid og chikane, der venter alle, der forsøger at bevæge sig rundt på Vestbredden:
While physical violence (and the threat of violence) has been (to a degree) recognized by many as being the primary means through which Israel has worked to curb – if not eradicate – Palestine, there is a much quieter form of social sabotage that has been taking place within Palestinian society (both in what is now Israel and the Occupied Territory) since the Zionist state’s inception.Nadeem henviser bl.a. til en artikel fra Ha'aretz, der forsøger at konkretisere de forbud, der egentlig gælder for palæstinensere, der gerne vil bevæge sig lidt rundt i deres eget land (følg linket for fuld liste, her blot et par udpluk):
Manifesting in the form of procedural obstruction, and often carried out under the guise of “security”, this quiet sabotage includes blunt racism – but most commonly exists in the form of seemingly minor inconveniences, that when taken together can (and certainly do) stifle the chances of Palestinians ever achieving socio-political, economic, and personal prosperity.
Examples of such social degradation include state sanctioned restrictions on who one can marry, where one can build, the allocation of public funds, the maintenance of public works facilities, mass curfews, and most notably – restrictions placed on national and international travel rights.
All such laws and practices constitute flagrant violations of internationally recognized human rights and are a deliberate attempt to make life so unbearable for Palestinians, that they flee their ancestors’ land in search of more tolerable living conditions abroad – leaving their territories behind for further illegal Israeli settlement-building to encroach upon.
* Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are forbidden to stay in the West Bank.Men så kan man vel regne med, at de flinke israelske soldater sørger for at hjælpe tingene på gled, så den megen kontrol og de mange checkpoints kommer til at glide lidt nemmere for den lokale befolkning?
* Palestinians are forbidden to enter East Jerusalem.
* West Bank Palestinians are forbidden to enter the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing.
* Palestinians are forbidden to enter the Jordan Valley.
* Palestinians are forbidden to enter Nablus in a vehicle.
* Palestinian residents of Jerusalem are forbidden to enter area A (Palestinian towns in the West Bank).
* Palestinians are forbidden to travel abroad via Ben-Gurion Airport
* ...
Det fortæller journalisten Amira Hass en lille historie om i dagens Ha'aretz:
The willingness to help is also an Israeli trait. The very same soldier helped a policeman ensconced in his jeep at this remote checkpoint, located at the end of the Jordan Valley. On Tuesday last week, this soldier collected the identity cards of a number of drivers, gave them to the policeman in the jeep and returned to the drivers with the ID cards and with traffic violation tickets and a payment of a fine of NIS 100 each, which they would have to pay for the benefit of the state treasury, for not wearing seat belts. And incidentally, they were wearing seat belts, although their cars had already been waiting for half an hour or more.Enkelte, isolerede tilfælde af magtmisbrug? Amira Hass tror det ikke, og hun burde nok vide det - hun bor selv i Ramallah og er uden sammenligning den israelske journalist, der i de senere år har opholdt sig mest i de besatte områder:
Inventiveness is another blessed Israeli trait. A military order prohibits all Palestinians from entering and sojourning in the Jordan Valley, except for those who live there and work for the most part at Jewish settlements. In recent weeks, the soldiers at the Taysir checkpoint have told inhabitants of the Jordan Valley who "dared" to spend the night outside the valley and return to it in the morning that "this is forbidden." A year and a half ago they decided that it was "forbidden" for farmers to bring their produce through this checkpoint - as a result, these farmers had to make a detour of about 30 kilometers and pass through a different checkpoint. When it was made clear to the soldiers that there was no such order, they found a method to keep drivers away from the checkpoint: They obligated those who transport vegetables into the West Bank to unload all crates before the checkpoint, supposedly for inspection, and to reload them.
Tenacity is also considered to be an admirable trait, especially in the army. Brigade commanders come and go, soldiers are replaced and yet, during the past two years, the reports about the distant Taysir checkpoint have remained the same: soldiers who invent harassments, waiting times way beyond what is justified, on various false excuses (one time it is construction work at the checkpoint, another time forged documents and yet another time a security warning), and reports of people who were made to pass through a different checkpoint.
Each of the many dozens of checkpoints has developed its own methods of harassment over the years. They derive from the implicit order behind the existence of every checkpoint: Prevent Palestinian freedom of movement for the sake of the welfare of the Jewish settlements; that is to say - Israel. One gets sick of reading about the checkpoints. One gets even sicker of writing about them. And the most sickening thing of all is to pass through them.Sikkerhed - eller chikane? Læs, og døm selv.