From A to B: West Bank Journeys

15th December 2002

7.00am

I am writing (typing) this from a checkpoint. We are one taxi in a string of about 100 waiting to pass through what amounts to a few large stone blocks and 2 gates in the middle of the road.

I am way up in the north of the West Bank near the village of Tayasir not far from Jenin. We left Tulkarem today (Saturday) at 5.30am and arrived here at 6.30am. We - that is Jo my Quaker colleague, 4 Palestinan students and a man - are trying to get to Ramallah. If you look at a map of the West Bank, you might ask why we are now near Jenin - north east - having come from Tulkarem in the West in order to get to Ramallah in the south. This is West Bank travel. We have to travel in a massive loop through Jericho and the Jordan valley because Palestinian cars (with green number plates) cannot travel on the road south. Under normal circumstances the journey would take just over an hour.

8.00am

We are still here. The girls in the taxi are saying that they have to tell the checkpoint soldiers that they are going to Jericho, rather than Ramallah. They don't have a permit to Ramallah, where they study. Permits are hard to get and cost money. As Palestinians they are required to apply for permission to travel between their towns. Many don't bother. A man in the taxi office said at 5am this morning, "Why should we apply to Israelis for permission to travel on our own roads?" Of course, under these conditions travel documents get forged. Even the forged ones cost 15 NIS. Genuine ones cost more. Imagine British citizens having to pay to apply for permission to travel between London and Birmingham, and then having to travel there via Bristol on muddy roads of broken tarmac. The girls imply that the soldiers know that they are really going to Ramallah. It is a game.

8.30am

There are old people, young people, sick people and children packed into these taxis. The sun is coming up and more cars are joining the queue behind us. It is freezing up here in these beautiful hills. Having warmed ourselves on a fire that some of the men have just built on the road side to keep warm, Jo and I have just wandered down to the checkpoint, as none of the cars are moving. We couldn't see any soldiers, and the cars were stationary.

As we breached the checkpoint, a soldier appeared and called us to halt. Another one came out to speak to us. "Why aren't you letting any of these cars through?" we asked. "Look, we have to check these people." he said. "I can't work if the people keep getting out of their cars. If they stay inside the cars, I'll let them pass'". When I looked round most people were in their cars patiently waiting. Some had been there since 5.30am. It was only those out of sight from the middle to the end of the queue who were spilling out of the vechicals to stretch, or play with the children or warm themselves. Jo has stayed near the soldier and he has started checking passes and letting the people through. I talked to the people in the cars to tell them what the soldier said.

9:00am An old couple have just walked to the front of the queue. They are being told to stop. The man with Arab headdress has just sat down in the middle of the checkpoint. THe soldier is saying' "Its very simple, If someone is sick, they can come and tell me and I'll let them through." He told the woman to call their vechical and come through. Meanwhile the old man sat down again. He was apparently due to have an eye operation in Jerusalem. He was carrying his x-rays with him to prove it. The frustration in this car is now rising and we are hungry.

10.00am

It was pitch black when we left Tulkarem this morning under curfew. It wasn't until it got a bit lighter that I asked where we were and got a map out. We've been here 3 and half hours now. The cars are trickling through. Time for other thoughts. Yesterday, we were in Zayta village near Tulkarem looking at the massive ground work preparations for the new Israeli 'security fence' (Bullet point to follow) when we heard the drone of the apache helicopters. The atmosphere suddenly changed amongst the dozen men we were drinking tea including the mayor of Zayta and a local business man. They said they knew the Israelis were looking for someone on their wanted list in Tulkarem. The apaches were covering the ground operation from the air. It was eery and we all kept looking at the apache a few km away. Muhammad, who was showing us around, got news on his mobile that soldiers and tanks were surrounding a house in Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem. Sure enough, in last nights news, we learned the wanted person (a man in early twenties) was dead, a 'martyr' and 6 had been injured, one seriously in the operation. We heard the tanks still moving around late last night and a curfew was imposed on the town.

10.10.

We have just seen that there are atleast a dozen soldiers behind the barbed wire of their makeshift office at the checkpoint. Why aren't more of them manning the checkpoint? I could certainly now do with a toilet and some breakfast. But I think we have another hour and half before we reach Ramallah. It has now gone 10 and the girls have just joked that it would be quicker for us all to get to Britain than it is to get to Ramallah. (This is actually true!)

10.21

We are finally through the checkpoint after nearly 4 hours of waiting. The soldier has just checked all our passports and documents. He called each of the girls by their name, and asked where they were going and why. Jericho, for a visit, was the reply each time. He didn't ask further. He didn't probe. These questions were nothing to do with security. Forged documents were not scrutinised. The car was not even checked for explosives. None of this pertains to the security of Israel. These people are travelling within the West Bank. I asked him why he was keeping us all waiting so long when the other soldiers at the checkpoint could be helping. "They have other work to do" he said. What other work? I wonder. Under international law these checkpoints are illegal. Freedom of movement is a human right. Checkpoints are punishing an entire nation for the sins of a few. When people ask what I am doing here, and I mention human rights, it is a big joke. 'Human rights?' they say. 'There aren't any. We are animals.'

11.00am

Now I understand why we had to leave so early from Tulkarem. I feel tense, tired and irritable. Having laughed with relief at getting through the checkpoint, the girls are now silent. Toilet stop just before Jericho. Passing rolling hills of 'Judean' wildnerness on one side and the fertile lands of the Jordan Valley on the other, which Israel has fenced off and reoccupied during the Oslo negotiations claiming them to be 'Area C'. There are now many Jewish settlements in the Jordan valley. This is all West Bank Palestinian land.

11.30

Steep climb up from the Jordan valley into the desert hills. Driver coming in other direction has just informed our driver that the army are up ahead so we have turned round and turned off the main road and are driving across stony hillside. Two other taxis who got the message are in front of us. This is unbelievable. I can hardly type for the bumps. The car doesn't sound too good either. But there is a clear track mud track obviously used by other vechicals to avoid this checkpoint. This is just a barren rocky hill. There is a Jewish settlement on the horizon. That probably explains why there is a checkpoint on the road.

11.39.

We have just rejoined the main road.

11.50

We finally arrive at Calandia checkpoint in Ramallah. I go in the direction of Jerusalem - a city forbidden to all Palestinians except those with a Jerusalem ID. So, its good bye to the girls, my travelling companions for the last 6 and half hours, on a journey that could and should have taken 1.

Katharine Maycock

QPSW (Quaker Peace and Social Witness)

Israel & Palestinian Territories

If anyone would like to reproduce any part of this report verbatim, please contact Floresca Karanasou, on +44 (0) 20 7663 1073 or florescak@quaker.org.uk