First paragraph (Teaser):

 
An ISM update from the palsolidarity mailing list ..

1. Olive Harvest Update from Nablus: "a sign of a successful day..."
2. Report from the Village of Salim and Balata Camp, Nablus
3. Waiting for Shabak

[PHOTO: ISM]

Rest of the text:

 
An ISM update from the palsolidarity mailing list ..

1. Olive Harvest Update from Nablus: "a sign of a successful day..."
2. Report from the Village of Salim and Balata Camp, Nablus
3. Waiting for Shabak

1. Olive Harvest Update from Nablus:
"The fact that the family was able to pick for most of the day without getting arrested, and managed to keep most of their olives, to me was a sign of a successful day..."

by Siama

It's difficult to measure your success as an activist in Palestine, but after four days that I can only describe as a nightmare, I finally feel that today the fifth day was some kind of success.

The second day of the olive harvest (Sunday) was fine in the morning, but then we got a call from Nablus saying that the soldiers had entered the new campus of An Najah University and were detaining up to 50 male students and one was being beaten. The medical teams asked us to come right away. So I took a small group with me. By the time we got there, the students had all been released except the one who had been beaten and was in the jeep. We asked the university staff if they wanted us to try to do something, and they said no. This was really frustrating for me, but I won't go into my frustrations with the university staff, who basically let the army take the boy away in the end, without even letting us try to negotiate.

I'm sure they have their reasons, I just hope the boy will be ok.

Then we had a call from our group in the village telling us that everything was going badly wrong and that the army had arrived and could we come back immediately. So we left Nablus and headed back to Salem, literally running up the mountain to try and get to where we were told a Palestinian had been detained. We couldn't find him, and in the end, due to a lot of mis-communication in our group, none of us were able to get to the jeep that had the young man. Apparently the soldiers had more or less walked past the activists who were with the family, grabbed the boy and walked off with him.

When the activists tried to follow one soldier put his M16 on the ground and said he would shoot if they took another step. I had thought that he had been released, so I stayed with other families in the area who had not yet been seen, but later when I accompanied them down I was told the man had not been released. He was released the next day.

On the third day of the harvest (Monday), as I was on my way to meet the group at about 7:45am, I got a call that there were soldiers in Balata, occupying a home. A group of us decided to stay in Balata while the rest went on to the village. To sum up the day, we went to the houses to try and get in, but were unable to, the army jeeps kept coming up to us and blocking us every way we went. During the course of the day 7 people were injured, including a guy who was shot with a live bullet in his neck, a 12 year old girl who was shot with a live bullet in her foot, and a 9 year old boy who was shot with a live bullet in his thigh. I think most of the injuries were caused by the soldiers in the police jeep. They were really enjoying themselves and would mock us and wave at us and make all kinds of stupid gestures through their windows.

At one point another girl and I were trapped by the jeep and then they threw a sound bomb at us, which exploded just a few feet away. They just kept driving up and down the small alleyway where they had occupied two homes. Eventually we went to another jeep to ask when the soldiers would be leaving from the occupied homes. The soldiers just wanted to make pointless conversation with us and at first lied and said no homes were occupied.

During this time we were told by a woman that the jeep had a small boy inside that they had grabbed off the streets. We asked the soldiers about this and they drove off to a bigger jeep and we saw them transferring the boy from one jeep to another. We quickly made our way towards them and started to ask about the boy. They told us he would be kept in the jeep because he was throwing stones. Then they told us that if one of us wanted we could accompany them into the occupied house. We told them that we didn't want to accompany them into any houses, but if they could open the door of the house and allow us in to see the family we would appreciate it. Then they drove off.

After a few minutes all three jeeps drove up to the alley where the occupied homes were and we saw large smoke bombs, which are usually used to obscure the view when soldiers empty out from houses. After the soldiers evacuated from one house, they returned to evacuate the second house. We were told they also dropped off the small boy. The operation ended around 1:30pm.

After this we went to the hospital to take pictures of the victims. The 9 year old boy was lying there, still waiting to have the bullet removed from his thigh.

Later we went to the two homes which had been occupied. One was of the political prisoner Hussam Khader. His brother Ghassan told us about what happened. The soldiers had come at 2am and forced the family all into one room. The children kept talking and the soldier kept telling them to be quiet but one girl wouldn't so the soldier told Ghassan to tell her to shut up. Ghassan asked the soldier if he had any tape that he could put over his kids mouths.

The next day, Wednesday, we went back to Salem village for our fourth day of picking. Our group split into two and we went up to the families in the high risk areas. We picked for about an hour, before the group lower down called us and told us they were going to move down to the settler road because a jeep had stopped there and the soldiers were harassing a family. We made our way closer, but tried to stay hidden because we didn't want to draw attention to the families we were with, because they wanted to continue picking without making the soldiers aware they were there. Myself and another activist called Becks made our way down towards where the soldiers were talking to the other group of 5 activists, but the activists waved us away, so we went back again.

For the next hour I stayed in phone contact with them trying to give them advise on what to do. Becks took a group up to where one family was, and myself and an Italian activist stayed with one family. We tried to see what was going on and talked in whispers so as not to draw attention to ourselves. After a while the activists told us they were being arrested for being in a closed military area. They had been given the option to leave, but had decided to stay as long as they could to make sure the family was ok. One of them managed to get away but four of them were arrested (they were all released later the same day).

With all the activists gone from that area, we suddenly heard screams coming from the family, where the soldiers had obviously started making problems for them. Myself, Becks and a guy called Rich, tried to make our way down, without giving away the direction we were coming from. We saw the soldier leading the old Palestinian man down the mountain and another soldier was walking with an old Palestinian lady who was yelling at the soldiers to release her husband. We caught up with them and asked the soldiers what was going on.

We then tried to stand in front to stop them from putting the old guy in the jeep. The woman was telling us he was sick, so we asked the soldiers to release him, but they were really aggressive and wouldn't listen to us. Myself and Becks decided to block the jeep and stood infront quickly, before they could drive off with the man. Meanwhile the man's wife and other women tried to speak to the soldiers at the back to release the guy. The soldiers were so angry with us and jumped out of the jeep pushing us and trying to drag us away. Each time they pushed us down we got up again and jumped in front of the jeep. This happened for about 20 minutes until the District Co-ordinating Officer jeep arrived and he and other soldiers got out and tried to speak to us. They asked us to move away from the jeep, but we refused and asked them to speak to the soldiers to release the man, so we could go back to the village with him.

Meanwhile the other soldiers kept shouting at us and saying "We just arrested your friends, do you want us to arrest you too?" At first the DCO was sympathetic and gave us the impression he would do something, but after he spoke to the soldiers, he told us that the man had done something wrong and that's why he was being arrested. Becks tried to keep negotiating with him, while I blocked the jeep and Rich stood with the women who were shouting at the soldiers.

Then the DCO drove off and another jeep drove up. These soldiers were obviously looking for some trouble as they ran straight towards us and started pushing us and grabbing us and screaming in our faces and threatening us. We gave up on blocking the jeeps, as it was going to be near impossible and tried to walk away from them. They kept walking behind us and one very aggressive and disgusting soldier kept putting his leg in between mine from behind. I stopped and told him I would refuse to walk if he kept doing that, but he didn't care and kept pushing me forward and kicking me from behind and threatening to punch us. It's so difficult to describe how it feels when someone is continously provoking you, but you know you cannot even touch them. It is a great test of patience.

They pulled out a blindfold to put over Rich's eyes at first, but I told them very unkindly to put it away. I told them to leave us the hell alone, as they were saying disgusting things to us and laughing and jeering that the family would never be able to see the old man again.I recognized them from the day before in Balata camp and they obviously recognized me. I mentioned the fact that they had injured 7 people including young kids and they said they were proud of this and they would shoot me too next time, and then they were smiling and winking and saying, "See you in Balata tonight". I told them they should be ashamed of themselves. We kept walking down with the women, who were really amazing and not at all scared of the soldiers, they even told the soldiers they would be back to pick the next day. After that we went down to the village and started making some calls about the guy who had been arrested. Shortly after that we got a call from our final group which consisted of three people up in the mountain. They told us that the jeep had stopped near them, but no soldiers had gotten out yet. Becks and I made our way back up again and sat far enough away from them, but close enough to see what was going on. They got out of their jeeps and stared at us for a while, but then they got back in and drove away. After that we moved back down towards the village because by now I was getting really hungry. As we made our way towards the village we got another call saying the jeep was back. We quickly made our way up again and called to let the three activists know that two soldiers were making their way up to the farmers. After a few minutes they called back and said that the soldiers were calm and we should stay down and the farmers were going to leave with the internationals as requested by the army. We stood close enough to see what was going on and saw that it was the same soldiers, then we saw them line up and face us and then they fired a tear gas canister towards us. As the effects of the gas took on, we tried to run from it and cover our faces.

As Becks and I were trying to deal with the gas, the soldiers took the other activists and made them sit down and then they arrested three of the young male farmers. We could see what was going on and tried to make our away forward, but another jeep came and blocked us off. We tried to get past and block the jeep with the farmers in, but we were too late. After that we made our way up to the where the rest of the farmers were, and all the soldiers and they laughed and smiled at us, happy that they had arrested more Palestinians.

We all felt incredibly upset and frustrated that we had allowed them to arrest a total of four Palestinians in one day just for harvesting olives. The families also seemed very disappointed, although the one family who had been with Becks and I when we tried to block the jeep, appreciated our small efforts. We made more phone calls and managed to get a member of the Knesset to work on having the Palestinians released. Later that night they were.

That evening we discussed everything we had done wrong and said we would only go to Salem today, if we felt we could do something effective. This morning we didn't go as early as we normally do, instead we sat and discussed how we would work.

The four activists who were arrested the previous day, left Nablus and the rest of us formed an affinity group of seven. Several Japanese activists who didn't speak any English or Arabic joined us and we all went to the village.

We went to a family that was close to the settler road and started picking with them. After about an hour a jeep came and three of the girls went forward to negotiate with the soldiers. The rest of the group focused on being near the Palestinian man as we knew there would be a high chance of him being arrested. The soldiers moved from the road towards us and I could hear them saying that we all had to leave within ten minutes. The old man and woman asked if they could have an hour, because they needed to get the trees done before Ramadan, which starts tomorrow or the day after.

The soldiers weren't having it, although they were not aggressive. Then after a few minutes I saw another jeep pull up and recognized it as the same one from the day before with the aggressive soldiers in it. They rushed towards us, one of them winked and saluted me, he was obviously excited to be there and clash with us again. They tried to get around us to the Palestinian man and woman, but we managed to block them as we had discussed in the morning and half the group left with the Palestinians as quick as they could, while the rest of us could pushed and flung about.

After that we quickly tried to grab all the bags with olives, but the soldiers kept pushing us down and tried to grab the bags of olives and spill them everywhere. We hung onto the bags, but they kept pushing us. Every time I got up I fell flat on my back and so I stayed down and told them, to calm down. Then I saw them trying to push one of the girls over the side of some rocks backwards, I couldn't believe it and rushed forward to grab the girl before he pushed her down. I managed to grab her arm, but then I felt the soldier pushing me and I shouted something along the lines of "please don't do this", before I screamed and we both fell over onto some of the rocks below. Thankfully it wasn't too high, but my body is aching and bruised from the experience. I was so angry and determined to get the olives so I climbed back up and so did the other two girls and we all grabbed a bag of olives each. They were really heavy and the soldiers laughed and pushed us as we tried to pick them up.

I focused on making sure that we got all the olives and then we made our way down the mountain with them following us. When we got down the family told us that some olives had been left behind. We waited for a while and then went back up, when we were sure the soldiers had left. When we got back up we saw that the soldiers had spilt the olives all over so we tried to gather as much as we could and take them to the family. Although the fact that the Palestinians had been driven away in such an awful manner may not seem in any way a success, the fact that the family was able to pick for most of the day without getting arrested, and managed to keep most of their olives, to me was a sign of a successful day.

2. Report from the Olive Harvest in Salim Near Nablus:
"You have to focus on the one olive that you are touching at the very moment. Some olives are stubborn..."

by Tito

Sunday October 10, 2004

After completing the training, we best get to work. Now Nablus is not more than an hour away from Jerusalem. In a peaceful world it should take no more than an hour and a half to get from one city to the other. But peace is something hard to find in Occupied Palestine. It took us about four hours to reach Balata Camp. Between three taxi cabs and running up the hill and dodging check points, well, you can imagine. What would normally be a 15 minute drive can be extended to hours. Bear in mind that I am an 'international', which means that I have a lot more freedom of movement within this military state. Palestinians can barely walk a block without running into a dangerous situation.

Reaching the ISM house was exciting. There were three different 'affinity groups' when we got there. An affinity group can consist of 6 to 8 individuals. Arrestables and non-arrestables, negotiators and media contact person, translators, legal team contact person and so forth. Some of the internationals have been here for months. Some of us are rookies. I was glad to be near the village where we would be picking the olives with the Palestinian families. That night I met some really warm people from Australia. Well actually they are Palestinians but live in Sydney. I felt a connection immediately. I was asked about Jacobo Arbenz and the United Fruit Company (google that). Word gets around about the world wide effort to resist oppression.

That night I had the best fruit ice-cream mix. Just for about 50 cents. Everything is so cheap here.

Monday October 11, 2004

We set out to the olive fields near Salem village. When we got there at about 9:30 AM, three families were working hard and we easily joined them. We were warned that some 'settlers' had stated that they would come around 10 AM. Dealing with the 'settlers' can be very dangerous. Some have guns and will not hesitate to use them. Dealing with the soldiers is less dangerous. They have guns but don't really want to use them on internationals. You can negotiate with the soldiers. There is no negotiating with the settlers. This had me worried, had us all worried. So the quicker we pick the olives the better for the Palestinian families. It is like meditation, picking the olives. You have to focus on the one olive that you are touching at the very moment. Some olives are stubborn, so they require a little more concentration than others. And like this.time went by without any incident what so ever. We picked and picked and picked.

At about 4 PM the families called it the day, gathered up their goods and headed back to the village. I thanked God that the day had turned out to be peaceful. I was really happy to have gotten a chance to taste the work I set out to do. Walking back into the village was a happy moment for everyone involved. There was a sense of accomplishment in the air. The village kids were welcoming, and really enthusiast about the internationals being in their land. Every single kid in Palestine can and will ask you 'watts you naim?', 'watts you naim?', 'watts you naim?'. The overwhelming thing is that they line up and ask you one after the other. Five, six, seven kids at a time, they all ask you 'watts you naim?'. Well, apparently there is an Arab movie out right now and guess what the name of the movie is? You guessed it.

By far this has been the most exciting day since I left the states. After getting back to Balata Camp, a group of us went for pizza and ice-cream at 'Pizza Hum' then we set out to internet Cafe72, where again I sat down for an hour, to again press the wrong button and viola. Where is the digital world anyways?

Tuesday October 12, 2004

Yesterday was a disaster. Yesterday was frustrating.
Yesterday was a lesson. Yesterday yesterday yesterday.

We left the ISM house at about 9 AM. By 9:30 AM we should have been ready to pick olives. We got to the field, the families were happy to see us and there are so many olives that need to get picked. But we were far from an 'affinity group'. With so many people (two groups), so many languages, so many 'internationals', it is no surprise that 'communication' will be an issue. We were not working as a team at all. The energy was intense and I just wanted to pick olives. Some ideas went back and forth and finally we all set out to help the families. I was interviewing a 70 year-old Palestinian man when a member from my affinity group saw an army jeep. The soldiers started approaching a family that had no internationals with them, so the negotiator and another arrestable decided to approach the soldiers. I don't get down like that, so I stayed back and continued filming from distance. A situation like this can escalate in a matter of seconds, depending on what side of the bed the soldiers got out of that morning. Before we could communicate with the other affinity group the situation started to get chaotic. This particular area in patrolled by a soldier that happens to also be a settler. Noh-guat-eye-meen? I stuck by the side of a Palestinian that works as a coordinator for the Balata Camp ISM house, he is very much NON-arrestable and well, so am I. So we kept generating distance between the soldiers and ourselves. The soldiers can not arrest you, only border police can arrest internationals. But they can detain you while the border police gets there.

Cell phones are the number one way we communicate, and boy was I glad I did not have one. Cell phones going off left and right. Information of all sorts going back and forth.

Detained.
Not detained.
Arrested.
Not arrested.
2 people.
No three.
Are you resisting.
The border police on their way.
On the floor.
Inside the jeep.
The soldiers are beating up a Palestinian woman.
We need reinforcements.
Get the familes away from here.
Where is Tito? (Shoot!)
Where is the Palestinian coordinator?
Why are you not resisting?
Answer my phone!
Can you translate?
What did she say?
Wait until I come down from the tree.
Who got arrested?
The german reporter.
The New Zeland guy.
Get the Palestinian coordinator away from here.
Who is gonna stay with this family.
There are more jeeps coming?
They have a Palestinian man in the jeep.
We are gonna block the jeep.
The families do not want to leave.
We have been given 10 minutes to move a 100 meters.
But the families refuse to leave.
Are you resisting arrest?
Why don't you just walk away.
They are being taken away.
They are arresting more Palestinians.
Some body call the legal team.
Where is the Palestinian coordinator?
Where is Tito? (Shoot!)
Hide you film.
They'll break your camera. (So sorry T).
There is a jeep in front of us now.
They are headed our way.
They threw a sound bomb our way.

God
God
God

The only thing the Palestinian families want to do is pick their olives. This is obviously a time sensitive issue.

The only thing the soldiers and settlers want to do is spoil it up for the families.

At all cost they will let any one and every one involved know - 'This is our promised land, get out or we will hurt you'.

Hurt people they did.
They beat up a man from Alabama.
They knock down a woman from a ladder.
Tear gassed two international women.

In fact I found this in the web;

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/487911.html

The last paragraph mentions the situation I just described.

The internationals were released after agreeing to stay away from the area for two weeks. Remember- working the land is a time sensitive issue. They made it back to the house late night. The Palestinians men were also released sometime today. Immediately after getting arrested we went to the houses where these Palestinian men live, got their information and the ISM legal team got on the ball. So this morning we were all relieved that they had been released. Sometimes they will be detained for days with no knowledge as to their whereabouts, or how they are being treated. I think is fair to say that only a Palestinian really knows how she or he is treated by the IDF (Israeli Destruction Forces - and never 'defense').

Wednesday October 13, 2004

I have never seen people so proud as the people from Balata Camp, Nablus.

The walls are full of martyr posters. The children know the names of each and every martyr. They know the specifics of the operations. They carry the faces of the martyrs around their neck. They place pictures of their brothers, uncles, fathers and cousins in the most visible places of their businesses, their homes. This pride has begun to permeate my skin, my molecules.

Now, I spent about 20 minutes typing this up?

Why?

I am taking part in a non-violent movement, that's why.

Besides isn't life about being aware of the moment.
I was aware.
I am aware.

I am aware that I need to get away from this computer and take a stroll.

Take a breather. A deep breather. A long deep one. But please, next time you choose to check some one, make sure you are ready to stand your ground. Don't just check someone because it suits you nice at that moment.

For photos of Balata Camp and harvest see http://www.palsolidarity.org/portal/alias__Rainbow/lang__en-US/tabID__3403/DesktopDefault.aspx

3. Waiting for Shabak

by Neta Golan

The difference between Qalandiya checkpoint at the entrance of Ramallah and Huwwara checkpoint at Nablus's main exit and entry is that there are people that can actually go in and out through Qalandiya.

Nablus like most of the major West Bank cities has been under intense siege for the last four years. Recently, people over thirty- five from Nablus are allowed out sometimes and occasionally students are allowed in once a week and out once a week. Otherwise, if you are from Nablus you can not leave if and if you are not from Nablus you can not enter.

I remember pleading with the soldiers to allow the very pregnant wife of my friend to return to her husband and children in Huwwara, the village whose land the checkpoint is built on. She had her marriage certificate with her proving that her husband was from Huwwara but her I.D. said Nablus so after standing in the sun for almost two hours she was screamed at to turn back. I told the soldier that I hope his mother will never be treated the way he treated this woman and he answered smugly, "She won't. She is not Palestinian".

Rammallah on the other hand has special circumstances. After 1967, when Israel unilaterally annexed what they call "east Jerusalem" as part of Israel, they did not want to make citizens of the Palestinians that lived there. So they granted the native inhabitants of Jerusalem the status of "permanent residents of Jerusalem" a status similar to one a foreigner who was granted permission to live in Israel would receive. They don't have the right to vote in the national elections and if Jerusalem stops being "the center of their life", if they move to the neighboring city or go to study abroad, their residency is revoked and they lose their right to live in Jerusalem or any where else in Palestine/ Israel for that matter.

As part of the effort to Judeify Jerusalem (a term used by the Israeli Authorities) Palestinians from East Jerusalem are not given permits to build or even repair their homes in the city. If they built without a permit their houses are demolished. On the other hand they are permitted to build in areas closer to Rammallah like Al Ram and Samir Amis. These areas are considered by Israel as part of "the greater Jerusalem" so the Jerusalemites that live there pay taxes to the Jerusalem municipality (and receive bullets instead of services) and in return for leaving Jerusalem they do not lose their residency rights and are allowed through the checkpoints between Jerusalem and Rammallah. The result is that the strangling siege that other cities are subjected to is not complete and Rammallah's economy has been able to survive.

When my family moved back to Rammallah I felt like the Jew that was told by his rabbi to take a goat into his over-crowded house after he complained about it being unbearable. A month later when he was allowed to put the goat back in its pen his house didn't seem that bad. So when my Family and I first moved back from Nablus to Rammallah I almost loved Qalandiya checkpoint.

Unfortunately the novelty of being allowed to cross soon whore off and soon I was dreading having to cross Qalandiya. Today I was dreading having to witness the humiliation of people, cramped and made to wait while being bossed around by armed men the age of their sons or their grandchildren.

I was dreading the frightened children, the crying babies, the old and infirm forced to stand, wait, walk... I was dreading having to witness people being threatened or beaten by the Israeli soldiers. I was dreading not being able to intervene physically because my baby daughter Shaden was coming with me. I was dreading the helplessness and the rage that comes with crossing Qalandiya checkpoint. But, it was the first training of the Olive Harvest Campaign and I wanted to be there. So I took my daughter Shaden and a very deep breath and called a cab.

After the soldiers usual surprise at seeing an Israeli Jew come walking out of Ramallah and the usual scolding of "it's illegal for you to be there", I gave my routine explanation, I told him I was married to a Palestinian and lived in area "C" beyond the checkpoint. An apartheid military order was issued in October 2000 that stated that Israeli citizens were forbidden to enter area "A". The allegedly "Palestinian controlled" areas.

After he communicated my details over the wireless I was told to wait. This was not unusual. I was used to this routine by now, The commander of the checkpoint, a large freckled boy, called me over to him. "Aren't you afraid to go in there? "he asked. "I don't need to be afraid. I don't have a gun." I explained "I am not here as an occupier so I am not treated as one." He asked: "Do you see me here with a flag?" I replied "No. I see you here with a gun."

Apparently he didn't like my answers because then he ordered- "Don't stand close to me. Go stand over there and stop disturbing my work"

After half an hour of waiting to be cleared to proceed I asked what was going on. I was told by a chubby young soldier that I was wanted by the police and that they should be arriving shortly. After another hour in witch I tried to intervene as soldiers used unnecessary violence in two separate incidences I asked him again if the police could be told to hurry since I had a baby with me, He hinted that it was the Shabak- the Israeli secret service that wanted me and said that the issue was out of his hands. That worried me.

I have been summoned to be questioned by Israeli the secret service around three years ago. The summons had arrived in the mail asking me to report to a certain police station for a clarification. Only after I entered the office was I told by the interrogator that he was from the "Shabak". I had asked my interrogator if he had ever, while working with Palestinians, applied "moderate physical pressure"-- the technical term used for torture used by the Israeli authorities. He yelled that that didn't exist. "Moderate Physical pressure" was official procedure when interrogating Palestinians until 1999 after which it became unofficial procedure.

Now, I wondered why they needed me to wait at the checkpoint. Will they take me now? What about Shaden? I didn't have enough diapers or warm clothes for her for a long stay out. What about my eldest daughter Nawal who is a year and seven months old now and would be home from daycare soon?

My fears were fueled by the fact that Tali Fahima, an Israeli woman who had spent time building bridges in Jenin refugee camp, had been recently accused by the Shabak of aiding terrorism. They held her for thirty days which is as long as the law permits to hold an Israeli without filing charges, and interrogated her fifteen hours a day. When the legal time they could hold her was up the Shabak had nothing to charge her with. So she was sentenced for a renewable sentence of four months of administrative detention. The criminalization of Israeli just peace activists is not surprising, actually it is inevitable. No society can uphold a double set of standards over time. Treating Palestinians as sub-humans who aren't entitled to basic rights while maintaining a democracy for Jews only is not sustainable or even possible.

After two hours Shaden was getting cold and beginning to sneeze, I considered leaving my I.D. with the soldiers and just walking away. Would they chase me?

After three hours of being forced to witness the hell of Qalandiya, a police car from the neighboring settlement of Neve Yaakov appeared with a summons like the one I had received in the mail three years ago. I was being asked to come in for "a clarification" on the nineteenth Of October. "Couldn't you have sent this to me the mail?" I asked the policeman that gave me the summons. I was close to tears by this time. "They wanted you to get it by hand" He said. "And it took you three hours to get here?" "You can file a complaint." he answered. The freckled checkpoint commander reappeared. He called me "cheeky" for complaining and again repeated what seemed to be a favorite of his. He came up close to me and ordered again, "Don't stand so close to me. You're disturbing my work."

I guess he was right. In a land where women give birth at the side of the road and patients die "waiting " by these checkpoints while thousands whose crime is to fight for their freedom are spending there lives in prison camps, it is cheeky to complain about three hours.

Neta Golan is an Israeli Just Peace Activist and co-founder of ISM. She lives with her Palestinian husband and two daughters in Ramallah.