by Jerry Levin

Hebron, West Bank, Palestine

May 28, 2004

A section of the "annexation" wall has reached Ramallah western edge of Qalandiya checkpoint, south of Ramallah, which bars West Bank Palestinians coming down from the north from entering Jerusalem. However, it has been positioned-of course unilaterally--a considerable distance inside the Palestine side of the checkpoint, approximately a quarter of a mile down from where IDs and passports are currently being checked.

Something similar, of course, happened earlier this year in East Jerusalem. A section of the "annexation wall" sliced drastically through Abu Dis, putting Al-Quds University on the "wrong" side. Now it sits in the West Bank cut off from most of its student body and faculty. (See also From The Inside Out Report-34: Now The Sun Sets at 2:30.) And this section of the "annexation" has become the site of shootings of distressed Palestinians trying to sneak from one side to the other.

South of Jerusalem, a similar unilateral scenario is unfolding. The "annexation" wall has wormed its way up a hill northeast of Bethlehem to the eastern edge of the defunct Hebron Road, which traverses the Tantur checkpoint separating Jerusalem from Bethlehem. The Hebron Road once was the main thoroughfare south from Jerusalem through Bethlehem to and through Hebron. Now, however, the Hebron Road is abruptly blocked about a half mile down from the Tantur checkpoint by a forbidding Israeli army stockade, which encloses and seals off the heavily guarded Rachel's Tomb locale from the rest of Bethlehem. The religious site was lost to the West Bank as a tourist attraction when it was unilaterally attached to Jerusalem a few years ago.

As at Qalandiya, the "annexation" wall at Tantur has been positioned a considerable distance inside the Palestinian (Bethlehem) side of the checkpoint, also about four hundred yards down from where IDs and passports are currently being checked. Each day those passing through are witnessing the relentless construction of a huge terminus, covering about a quarter of a square mile of former Palestinian fields, orchards, and dwelling sites, which is taking shape against the wall. Gun toting private security guards, hired to protect the insistent construction going on inside the still open to view enclosure, prevent the curious from attempting to look around inside--especially to take pictures.

Nevertheless its interior is still exposed enough to be able to get a good idea as to what kind of anti-phoenix is arising from the Israeli-made ashes of this increasingly constricted corner of the West Bank. What appears to be materializing before the eyes of the dispossessed is an immense super-paranoid fortified complex. The purpose appears to be to provide the Israeli army with a vast protected space in which its almost omnipotent bureaucracy will have the means to minutely and forcefully regulate or, when desired, completely choke off the flow of Palestinian humanity and goods attempting to move and be moved in, out, and through the increasingly fractionated West Bank: much like the Eretz crossing at Gaza.

A West Bank Palestinian who has need to get to Jerusalem, without any enabling documents, such as a note from a doctor confirming a medical appointment cannot be assured of passage through a checkpoint. That is up to a often bored, angry, or simply downright mean young Israeli soldier, Border Policeman or Border Police Woman on duty at the time.

The uncertainty due to caprice forces literally thousands and thousands of Palestinians every day to attempt getting in and out of Jerusalem by riskier means. A Palestinian passing through the Tantur or Qalandiya checkpoint, if he hasn't been delayed very long there, which too often is the case, may be able to get to, say, the Damascus Gate at the heart of East Jerusalem in thirty to forty more minutes.

But if he or she is trying to avoid the checkpoint, sneaking in or out through bumpy side roads and around checkpoints may take as long as two or three hours. And, if collared on a Jerusalem street at an impromptu police or army checkpoint, the person may become the victim of imprisonment, an uncomfortably large fine, or, if a man, a clandestine beating out of sight of potentially interfering eyes.

Meanwhile further south in Hebron, the Israeli confiscation noose continues to tighten similarly. The pace of the kind of "annexation" walling/fencing process, which I described a few weeks ago as choking off farming areas outside the city in the vicinity of Kiryat Arba and Harsina settlements (From The Inside Looking Out Report-35: Only Half The Story.) is also palpably impacting the increasingly hapless Palestinian inhabitants frantically trying to hang on and survive in Hebron's Old City.

All along its perimeter the obvious institutionalization of the Israeli army barriers and checkpoints severely restricting access is taking place. For instance, most of the entrances leading to the Old City, which were formerly blocked with loosely strung barbed wire barriers, flimsy screening, or temporary looking guard structures have been replaced by solid metal dividers, sturdy rigid fences, and increasingly elaborate and infinitely more sturdy and bullet proof guardhouses.

This evolution can best be observed at the Beit Romano checkpoint. at the north end of the Old City. Within the past couple of weeks, the relatively vulnerable camouflage-netting covered guardhouse fashioned out of pushed together three feet by three feet by three feet heavy cement cubes, which are also used to block roads and passageways, has been replaced with a thick walled one-piece solid- roofed circular cement guardhouse with bulletproof slit like windows all around.

After it was installed, an equally high thick barrier of tall thick cement slabs was set in place. This imposing much more solid barrier extends about ten feet from one side of the street to the guardhouse, which juts further into the street, leaving a considerably narrowed opening just wide enough for only one vehicle to pass by at a time. Then just this week, across a small plaza from the guardhouse, Israeli soldiers positioned one of those heavy cement roadblocks across the already narrow entrance to the Old City, which has the effect of slowing down foot traffic as it emerges into the plaza and approaches the checkpoint.

Also since late April the ominously refortified Beit Romano checkpoint has been the site of an unprecedented campaign of Israeli army harassment. Up until then Israeli soldier guards detained mostly young men. Now senior citizens and even boys in short pants are also being stopped. Besides checking their IDs all are often ordered to lift their shirts up to their shoulders so the soldiers can see if they are concealing anything. "This is how we catch terrorists," is the explanation soldiers give. Palestinians, who object, are often ordered to turn around and stand spread-eagled against the wall while an angry soldier prods or punches him in the back to stand up straighter.

Now the military are routinely stopping women too, and ordering them, like the men and boys, to stand against a wall while their IDs are checked. Often the women are ordered to open their purses and shopping bags so that they can be searched too, while other women, usually younger ones, are ordered out of sight into the guardhouse for a more intimate frisking by female soldiers. Even children are being routinely stopped these days, their IDs also lifted and checked, as well as the contents of their school bags or backpacks.

Also Israeli soldiers stationed around the Old City have been stepping up their patrols through it to several times a day and night. As they move from the Beit Romano checkpoint at one end to the Ibrahimi Mosque special security zone at the other, they stop to prod deeply baskets and boxes of produce and other wares for concealed weapons, while waving metal detecting wands over bags of bread, neatly arranged mounds and bulging baskets of fresh vegetables and fruit, as well as other items on display outside the handful of shops still fitfully open for business. The soldiers also stop the small tractors pulling mini wagons designed for use in the narrow passageways of the Old City, vendors and their pushcarts, and even boys pulling wagons to poke around the contents thoroughly before letting them proceed. And some times they will randomly stop and set up a flying checkpoint to institute a surprise ID check in order to flush out someone on the Israeli security apparatus' "wanted" list.