A Israel Defense Forces checkpoint, usually called an Israeli checkpoint (Hebrew: מחסום, machsom, Arabic: حاجز, hajez), is a barrier erected by the Israel Defense Forces with the stated aim of enhancing the security of Israel and Israeli settlements and preventing those who wish to do harm from crossing. Most of the checkpoints in the West Bank are not located on the boundary between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, but rather throughout the West Bank.[1]
IDF checkpoints may be manned by the Israeli Military Police, who perform security checks on Palestinians, the Israel Border Police, and / or other soldiers.
Contents |
The IDF has stated that during 2008, it has removed the crossing joins, 140 roadblocks and eight central checkpoints, in an effort to improve freedom of movement for the civilian Palestinian population.[2] As of December 2010, Israeli authorities report that 27 out of 41 manned checkpoints, and more than 200 unmanned roadblocks- more than a third of the total roadblocks- have been removed.[3]
According to program director Col. Triber Bezalel, the IDF employs humanitarian officers at various checkpoints, which are responsible to make life easier for those who cross the borders and aid the elderly and sick.[4]
Many Palestinian residents of the West Bank, claim that despite the checkpoints' intended use, in practice they violate Palestinians' rights to transportation and other human rights. Palestinian complaints of abuse and humiliation are common: Israel Defense Forces' Judge Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Dr. Menachem Finkelstein, states that "there were many—too many—complaints that soldiers manning checkpoints abuse and humiliate Palestinians and that the large number of complaints 'lit a red light' for him".[5] Hundreds of Israeli women have monitored the checkpoints as part of Machsom (Checkpoint) Watch. The organization circulated daily reports on the checkpoints and published a book of testimonies that co-founder and author Yehudit Kirstein-Keshet says demonstrates "Israel's imprisonment of an entire population in a web of closures and checkpoints."[6] Kirstein-Keshet also reports, "We Watchers … have witnessed the daily humiliation and abuse, the despair and impotence of Palestinians at checkpoints."[7]
The United Nations, in its February 2009 Humanitarian Monitor report, has stated that it is becoming "apparent" that the checkpoint and obstacles, which Israeli authorities justified from the beginning of the second Intifada (September 2000) as a temporary military response to violent confrontations and attacks on Israeli civilians, is evolving into "a more permanent system of control" that is steadily reducing the space available for Palestinian growth and movement for the benefit of the increasing Israeli settler population.[8]
According to the Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network member Applied Research Institute—Jerusalem (ARIJ), the Israeli military established 121 flying checkpoints in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between October 2006 until April 2007.[9] Their study claimed that most of the flying checkpoints were located in the northern part of the West Bank; in particular, the Nablus Governorate, Tubas Governorate and Jenin Governorate and that Palestinians attempting to cross flying checkpoints could wait anywhere between 20 and 90 minutes, and in some cases, longer.[9]
According to Israeli Human Rights group B'Tselem, from 2000 to 2009 there have been 72 Palestinians deaths related to delays receiving medical care at checkpoints.[10]
Medical vehicles might be stopped and are not immune to searches by Israeli soldiers at flying checkpoints. For example, in March 2002, an explosive device was found in a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance. The Red Crescent expressed shock at the incident, and began an internal investigation.[11] On January 11, 2004, a PRCS ambulance not carrying patients was stopped and searched at a flying checkpoint near the village of Jit. The ambulance was escorted by military jeep to the Qadomin bus station where after 10 minutes the ambulance crew got their IDs back and were allowed to continue working. In another case, on the same day, an ambulance transporting a diabetic patient to the hospital in Tulkarm was stopped, searched, and allowed to proceed after the companion of the patient was arrested.[12]
Some checkpoints between Palestinian towns in the West Bank require permits for Palestinians to cross them and exceptions are not always made for medical emergencies. In 2008, an Israeli soldier in command of a checkpoint outside Nablus was relieved from duty and imprisoned for two weeks after he refused to allow a Palestinian woman in labour to pass through.[13] The woman gave birth to a stillborn baby at the checkpoint. In contrast, a small number of Palestinian diplomats and other individuals are given VIP cards by the Israeli army that effectively allow the carriers free passage through checkpoints.