International Checkpoint Watch - Daily Observations

Date:      June 13,  2001                                        Time: 17:00 to 17:45 p.m.                                Place Observed: Birzeit/Surda Checkpoint

Number of Soldiers Present: At least Four, three outside shooting and at least a one more inside the jeep acting as the driver.  There were additional soldiers stationed in a tank above the checkpoint

Soldiers Names, ID #’s, License Plate #’s, Etc:  We couldn’t come within 150 meters of the soldiers due to stone throwing and shooting.

Events Witnessed:

We were unable to approach the Birzeit checkpoint due to intensive shooting and stone throwing.  The road between Birzeit and Ramallah was completely closed yesterday and no traffic was allowed through in either direction.  According to information we received the road was closed all day and anybody approaching the Israeli position was shot at.  Media reports today confirm that one woman was shot in the leg with live ammunition early in the morning. 

All Palestinian traffic was stopped approximately 200 meters from the Israeli position.  During the time we were at the checkpoint the only vehicle let through was an ambulance.  Women and the elderly were allowed to walk through the checkpoint, but any males who approached were shot at (one male Birzeit student said that he had been allowed through the checkpoint and that all students who are legally in the West bank were being allowed to pass).  Anyone else wanting to travel between Birzeit or Ramallah had to walk through the valley below the checkpoint.  The Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint were regularly firing rubber bullets at people walking thorough the valley.  The valley is extremely steep and there is no walking path, making the trip around the checkpoint difficult and dangerous.  When we first arrived we observed approximately 150 to 250 people walking across the valley.  Those walking included many women and young children.  We also observed numerous people carrying heavy loads, such as groceries. 

There were approximately 20 to 30 young Palestinian men on each side of the checkpoint standing around the taxi’s that were waiting to pick up people walking around the checkpoint.  Periodically they would move forward and throw rocks at the Israeli soldiers who were stationed several hundred meters away.  Their rocks did not appear to be reaching the soldiers location.  The soldiers responded by shooting rubber bullets.  The bullets not only targeted those who were throwing stones, but were fired in the direction of the taxi’s and those waiting to cross the valley as well.  Not all of the shooting was in response to stone throwing.  Often the soldiers opened fire at random.  It did not appear that the soldiers were in any danger, and there was a tank sitting above them on the hill for “support”.  We also observed several cars that had been abandoned earlier in the day by people unable to drive to work.  Either a stone or rubber bullet had broken the windshield of one of the cars. 

After approximately 15 minutes observing the situation on the Ramallah side we crossed through the valley to the Birzeit side thinking that we might be able to move closer to the soldiers position from there.  We watched from that side for five to ten minutes when the Israeli soldiers climbed into their jeep and then drove down the bypass road that bisects the valley towards the people walking around the checkpoint.  There were probably fifty people in the valley at that point and they all ran for cover, scrambling up the hills to reach the cover of the taxis.  The Israeli’s quickly drove back to their previous position without exiting from their car.  It appeared that they drove into the valley to frighten and harass the people walking around the checkpoint.  As the jeep returned up the road many of the young men on both sides of the checkpoint threw rocks down onto it from the road above.  When the jeep had returned to its location at the intersection of the bypass road and the Birzeit-Ramallah road it turned in the direction of Birzeit and charged the waiting taxi’s and stone throwers.  When the Israeli’s reached the Palestinian Taxi’s they threw three Sound Grenades and opened fire with rubber bullets for about one minute.  Either a sound grenade or stones damaged at least one taxi during this attack.  The Israeli soldiers then returned to their permanent position at the intersection.  The situation was quiet again for several minutes, but then deteriorated when several young men began throwing stones.  After another few minutes of shooting the soldiers again threatened to drive towards the Birzeit side of the checkpoint and we were again forced to run.  When we could return to the area where the taxis were located we decided to leave and walked back across the valley to the Ramallah side.  We stood there for several more minutes as the shooting continued, and then left.