International Checkpoint Watch - Daily Observations

Date:    June 20, 2001                                    Time: 07:30 - 09:00                
Place Observed: Surda Checkpoint

Number of Soldiers Present: 2 soldiers outside and 2 soldiers lying in the back of the jeep.

Soldiers Names, ID #’s, License Plate #’s, Etc: Jeep 610 765  

Events Witnessed: 

19:30    Traffic is allowed to flow smoothly.   We learn from the soldiers that their orders are basically the same as the days before: only public transportation, ambulances,             UN cars, holders of a Jerusalem ID and “pregnant women” are allowed to drive through, in both directions.

19:45    A soldier stops a service taxi coming from Birzeit.  After the car is allowed to continue we             ask the soldier why he had decided to stop that particular car.  He        replies that it is just for checking as they decide to pick one car from time to time in order to check it.  A few private cars and a tractor manage to get through after             discussions with the soldiers.

20:05    A man driving a green-plated car tells one of the soldiers that he had spent the night in Ramallah with his son who is at the hospital in serious conditions and that       he wants to go back home.  The soldier let him go “even though (he) did not really believe the story” as he told us.   It appears that the soldiers use their own             criteria to regulate the traffic.

20:20    Most Palestinians in private cars are forced to turn their way back to Ramallah.