Machsom Watch

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Machsom Watch, or Checkpoint Watch is a group of Israeli women who monitor Palestinian at Israeli checkpoints.[1] The self described "politically pluralistic" human rights organization is composed of Israeli women to the exclusion of men, with a "bias towards mature, professional women" who tend to have a "liberal or leftist background".[2] Machsom Watch claims to have 400 members, notably including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's daughter Dana. The word machsom is Hebrew for "checkpoint," referring to Israeli Defense Forces checkpoints which control movement between different parts of the West Bank and between the West Bank and Israel.

The IDF view of the humanitarian situation expressed by IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz during a two-hour meeting with members of the group in March 2006 were he told the women that: "Humanitarianism is not exclusively owned by Machsom Watch and it is tested not only at the checkpoints, but also in preventing suicide bombers from reaching the markets of Tel Aviv and Netanya."[3]

According to its website, the group's aims are to monitor the behavior of soldiers and police at checkpoints; ensure that the human and civil rights of Palestinians attempting to enter Israel are protected; and record and report the results of their observations to the widest possible audience, from decision-makers to the general public.[1] Some members also see their role as protesting against the existence of the checkpoints.[4][5]

Machsom Watch has been accused of being hostile towards the Israeli troops and disrupting the operation of checkpoints. Some of its charges against the troops have also been disputed as false.[6][7] On May 2006, the group sent a letter of apology to the IDF after activists had verbally attacked a soldier, called him "Nazi" and other profanities as he asked Palestinians to stand in line for an ID check at a checkpoint leading into Israel.[8] In response to the group's contentions regarding the checkpoints, the IDF has implemented training procedures intended to ensure respectful behavior by soldiers.[9]

Contents

[edit] History

Machsom Watch was founded in 2001 by Ronnee Jaeger, previously a human-rights worker in Guatemala and Mexico; Adi Kuntsman, who arrived in Israel from the Soviet Union in 1990; and Yehudit Keshet, a former Orthodox Jew and scholar of Talmudic ethics, in response to allegations of human-rights violations at IDF and border-police checkpoints. The group has also expressed concern about what they say is "the excessive Israeli response to the Al Aqsa Intifada and the prolonged closure and siege of villages and towns on the world trade center".[1]

In early 2002, following a wave of suicide bombings, the IDF checkpoints increased in number and Machsom Watch's activities attracted Israeli media attention, bringing more volunteers, including a few men. The involvement of male monitors was not a success.

[edit] Reactions, accusations of bias and the "violin incident"

[edit] Criticisms of Machsom Watch

During a two-hour meeting with members of the group in March 2006, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz told the women that: "Humanitarianism is not exclusively owned by Machsom Watch and it is tested not only at the checkpoints, but also in preventing suicide bombers from reaching the markets of Tel Aviv and Netanya."[10]

Machsom Watch has been accused by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), some non-governmental organizations, individual soldiers, and soldiers' mothers of disrupting the operation of checkpoints, showing hostility, and shouting derogatory comments and curses toward the troops, as well as making false accusations against them.[6][7][11] NGO Monitor has accused the group of "using emotive and politically charged language that contributes to the demonization of Israel."[6]

According to Yossi Olmert, a political commentator, Machsom Watch volunteers "disrupt the work of soldiers at checkpoints who are trying, not always successfully, to prevent the entry of terrorists."[7]

Several organizations in Israel demanded that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) remove the women from checkpoints.[citation needed] Soldiers have protested against an invitation extended by the IDF to Machsom Watch to speak at an army base, seeing the invitation as inappropriate mixing of politics into the military service.[12]

[edit] Support of Machsom Watch

In an editorial of March 8, 2006, Haaretz argued that organizations like Machsom Watch should not be viewed negatively in Israel: "This organization - like other human rights organizations, each of which focuses on a different consequence of the occupation - is the least that Israeli citizens can do to try to prevent injustices stemming from the occupation. Life under the anomaly of an occupation regime produces strange solutions, such as the presence of women alongside soldiers in an effort to ensure a more humane routine. The human rights organizations are the state's pride, not a threat that must be liquidated or minimized."[13]

[edit] The Beit-Iba checkpoint violin incident

On 9th November 2004, members of Machsom Watch videoed the IDF forcing a Palestinian violinist to play his violin at a checkpoint.[14][15] The IDF announced that the soldier had acted insensitively and reprimanded him, but later declared that the violinist had been playing voluntarily.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c About Us Machsom Watch website
  2. ^ Grandmothers on Guard Mother Jones, November/December 2004
  3. ^ Harel, Amos 'IDF chief invites anti-fence protesters to Tel Aviv meeting', Haaretz, 5 March, 2006, accessed 11 March, 2006.
  4. ^ 'Watch' (in Hebrew), accessed 11 March, 2006.
  5. ^ 'Many Mothers' by Sima Kadmon, Yedioth Ahronoth, 21 November, 2003, accessed 11 March, 2006.
  6. ^ a b c NGO Monitor website, Infofile (see linked articles), accessed 11 March, 2006.
  7. ^ a b c Stannard, Matthew B. 'A Time Of Change: Israelis, Palestinians And The Disengagement: At Checkpoints, A Gentle Advocate For Palestinians', San Francisco Chronicle, 2 August, 2005, accessed 11 March, 2006.
  8. ^ Soldier: Machsom Watch activist called me Nazi Ynetnews, 23 May 2006
  9. ^ Haughey, Naula. Irish Times, 12 June, 2005. 'Israeli checkpoint monitors decry their army's abuse of Palestinians' - Reproduction, accessed 11 March, 2006.
  10. ^ Harel, Amos 'IDF chief invites anti-fence protesters to Tel Aviv meeting', Haaretz, 5 March, 2006, accessed 11 March, 2006.
  11. ^ Weiss, Efrat Leftist group stirs IDF row, YNet News, 22 February, 2006, accessed 11 March, 2006.
  12. ^ HaLevi, Ezra 'Mothers of Soldiers Protest IDF´s Embrace of Machsom Watch', Arutz Sheva, 23 February, 2006, accessed 11 March, 2006.
  13. ^ Editorial, 'Who is for the state, and who is against?', Haaretz, 8 March, 2006, accessed 14 March, 2006.
  14. ^ Israel shocked by image of soldiers forcing violinist to play at roadblock November 29, 2004.
  15. ^ Israel army forces violin recital 25 Nov 2004.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] See also

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