In my Previous Diary I talked about dispelling a myth, and brought out an "exciting" story of a nighttime arrest in Jenin gone bad.
Today I'll talk about the day to day of manning a roadblock/checkpoint, a bit more details about how the occupation is run and what it has done to our mentality.
I hope you will consider this a good read, and I also hope that it brings you a better understanding of our conflict.
Eyal
Blockade!
"Seger Hutal Al Hashtahim". This is the hebrew announcement that Palestinians and Israeli soldiers despair to hear in the news. It means "A blockade has been instituted in The Territories".
For the Palestinians it meant that getting from town to town, village to village, difficult at best since the intifada, would be more difficult or even impossible for the following days. For us it meant that many more roadblocks had to be put up and manned. That meant less sleep, more boredom.
I spent several weeks (scattered over three years), in total, helping man checkpoints. A checkpoint exists in order to make an impasse that will require all passing through it to be checked. No detours - only bureaucracy.
A single roadblock
There were never enough men to man the checkpoints, so we had to choose from two types of shifts.
The fast shift meant that we you were on shift 6 hours, then off shift 6 hours. Of course getting organized took time, so you never slept more than 5 and a half hours straight, but at least you kept some sort of schedual.
The long shift was 8 hours on, 8 hours off, but you never got the same schedual. If you started on shift from 0800 to 1600, you were off shift from 1600 to 0000, on shift through the night from 0000 to 0800, off from 0800 to 1600 etc etc. If you want to torture yourself - try it. A human's biological clock goes nuts after 4 days like this. (For those about to suggest the 12 hour shift.... read ahead)
For starters there are three kinds of roadblock:
The small one - one or two jeeps with six to ten soldiers set up a roadblock for several few hours or a few days.
The medium one - a few mobile homes and structures, concrete blocks, enclosed checking area etc.
The big ones - permanent large structures heavily built and manned only by military police, border guards, and professional guards. (I didn't serve at these, just passed through them).
So, what do you do on a roadblock?
Nothing. Nothing happens at roadblocks. There are only three military tasks - check those coming through, guard prisoners on route from being arrested, and defend yourself against attacks. That is it, but wait - Enter bureaucracy. How do you choose who goes through? Palestinians are given identity cards, (green,orange, etc) with names&numbers. Some have permission to pass on foot, some have permission with a car or truck. Israelis have blue cards, and once in a while a brave employer would come through with his workers and authorization lists. Blue cards pass. Every post has a computer or radio to check the ID of those coming through against the "wanted" lists. Naturally the checking process is slow. Computer glitch here, spelling mistake on a card there - and you have to wait. Do it over again. Did I mention that getting an army computer technician to you on the outskirts of Ramallah takes a while? Lines form, no air conditioning, it stinks(literally), people get angry, shouting starts. Shouters are sent to the end of the line... day in, day out. (Try doing that for 12 hours straight, standing)
Wanted people rarely go through the roadblock. It occurred to others, It never happened to me. We never caught anyone wanted in our roadblock.
On roadblock duty we played backgammon, checkers, blackjack, even chess. Some read books. Day in, day out, the lines will be long no matter what you do. There is no incentive to speed up, no incentive to slow down. Nothing at all. Did I mention mind numbing?
In the IDF lots of ground units are "picked" for roadblock duty. Some are of poorer quality, and thus they usually get lots of the bigger "tours" of roadblocks. Apathy and disdain have become a culture of the roadblocks. Abuse is usually verbal, sometimes mental, occasionally physical. I saw the first happen, the second too. For the third you will have to read elsewhere. [I believe several KOS readers will happily provide adequate links]. I am proud to have been in a good infantry unit.
The power of bureaucracy
I was told in mid 2001, at one of my first roadblock "experiences" about a case a while beforehand where an ambulance carrying a sick Palestinian man wanted through. The soldiers checked it (not required up until then) and found explosives under the guy's strecher (he really was sick!). Lessons were learned, meetings held, clerks typed, papers and e-mail spread throughout the Brigade - No more ambulances go without checking and verifying ID for all aboard. How many people, when needing an ambulance, remember to take their ID? not enough. They do not get through since then, even if they are pregnant women. Power of the paperwork. I heard that once an ambulance still did get through with a suicide belt (hidden compartment or something). It went off in Jerusalem.
So why put up the damn thing?
Now there is a good question. I know some people would think "Evil!", but no, that is not the answer. Do you know how much it costs putting the whole operation up? Men, Vehicles, Command posts, radio networks, food, water, telephones, computers. Soldiers coming and going, guarding, patrolling, moving equipment, clerks checking papers, voiding them, extending them, passing them up & down for authorization&implementation, issuing orders, coordinating logistics, coordinating transport, receiveing new units, printing intelligence updates, setting up meetings etc etc etc etc. It is the bulk of the occupation. A thousand papers and lots of money. An occupation is not cheap.
"Evil" is the James Bond cliche, but like those movies - it is not reality. We must look deeper.
What is it all for?
Roadblocks impede movement. Getting from point A to B takes more time. Wanted men cannot go through roadblocks. That is the basic reason behind the madness. If you check out maps closely, you can see that Israeli cities and towns (even those inside the May 1967 borders) are very very close to Palsetinians ones. Netanya is 14 kilometers (9 miles) from Tul Karem, Jerusalem is 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Ramallah, and only 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Kalandia refugee camp, Afula is 15 Kilometers (10 miles) from Jenin, etc etc. We live in each other's throats. Imagine Bahgdad at the same distance as your local shopping mall and theater....
Had there been no blockade points gunmen and suicide bombers would have been able to cross with impunity. Bombers like the passover massacre suicide bomber which killed 30 Israeli civilians, bypassed a roadblock and took 5 or 10 minute car rides to their destination. You cannot stop them if they get through. Gunmen have been doing this since the first intifada in 1987. When large scale blockades were called for in the past few years, it was usually due to intelligence concerning suicide bombing missions that had begun (meaning that the production/recruitment circle I described in my earlier diary had closed). The numerous roadblocks caused the bomber to take extended hikes and detours, turning 8 minute car rides into 3 or 5 hour hikes and climbs - giving the security services more time to track the bomber down.
For example less than a year ago a surprise small checkpoint held up a suicide bomber. he detonated killing Lieutenant Uri Binamocommanding the checkpoint, along with 3 nearby palestinians.
In their essence, since major suicide bombings began in 1995, the roadblocks have in effect disrupted the freedom of movement of tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of palestinians in order to save the lives of around 5-30 Israelis who would have been killed by each bomber. Each individual blockade deemmed justifiable by the vast, vast majority of Israelis.
The roadblocks caused some to Palestinians die due to lack of medical treatment, and sowed more hatered in the heart of millions. When the will and number of bombers overflowed in march 2002 and killed 130 Israeli civilians in one month, there were two results - one was operation "defensive shield", and the other was the Separation barrier.
If three hundred roadblocks were not enough, maybe six hundred kilometers of fence&wall would be. One of the big hopes was that the fence would allow us to cancel as many roadblocks as possible.
Another price paid - thousands of Israeli soldiers served for months on blockade duty. They became apathetic, angry, upset, impatient, violent.
Over the past 20 years these soldiers have become a known factor in rising domestic violence and crime in Israel - unable to cope with their past.
Summing the story up
The roadblock strategy was the equivelant of hitting a thumbtack with a jackhammer. It did its job, somewhat, with a lot of collateral damage. Did it save Israeli lives on the short term? yes. The price in, hatered, despair and money ? Incalculable.
As promised, here is a song by Israeli singer Corinne Allal. It is called Zan Nadir (=A Rare Species). It was written at the end of the first intifada and first gulf war - in 1992. I think it says a lot about who we are, why we act how we act:
We are afraid of our own shadows
Clinging to the walls of houses,
Mostly ashamed of ourselves
Building shelters.
We escape crazy events
Squeeze into rowboats,
Any land is a sinking ship
When you are building shelters.
We are a rare species
A strange bird,
Dreams in the sky
Heads under ground.
We are cheating mostly ourselves
Not blind, but not looking,
It is not clear what we we live behind
Except a mountain of fears.
We are a rare species
A strange bird,
Dreams in the sky
Heads under ground....
[Sadly the rhymes were lost in my translation. My advanced apologies for any mistakes]
The opening music along with the first two lines of lyrics can be heard at Corinne's home page Here
Two closing questions
Where would you draw the line between massive prevention of movement and the saving of lives, given the circumstances?
What would you like me to write about next time?
Whoa, its 2 a.m. here, I got a bit carried away... it was worth it.
Good Night
Eyal