International Checkpoint Watch - Daily Observations

Date:    June 22,  2001                                               Time: 17:05 to 17:45                         

Place Observed: Surda Checkpoint

Number of Soldiers Present: 3

Soldiers Names, ID #’s, License Plate #’s, Etc: Jeep # 669343

Events Witnessed:

17:05    No cars are being stopped.  Soldiers ask us what we are doing and then leave us alone.  

17:20   A car from the Red Crescent is stopped and the driver is questioned

17:22    A taxi is stopped and all of its occupants are made to get out and stand by the

road while their IDs are checked.  The men are all young, between 20 and 30,

and the taxi is unmarked (the company stickers have been taken off of its doors).  The soldiers look through the car thoroughly and let it leave after only a few minutes. 

17:27    An official Palestinian Authority (red plates) car is briefly stopped and a gravel truck and is made to turned around

17:30    An armored personnel carrier arrives on the hill overlooking the checkpoint, and a bulldozer coming from the direction of Beit El is detained. Its driver is brought behind the cement wall and questioned for about one minute.  He is released at 17:35.

17:37    A private car is detained for five minutes

17:45    A man being held in the jeep, (we did not see him behind the wall when the driver of the bulldozer was detained) is released.  He states that he has been held for an hour and a half.  He states that the soldiers blindfolded him, but did not abuse him in any other way.  He was taken out of a taxi, and states that this is done every time he passes the checkpoint.  He believes that they detain him because of his prison record and because he is  a Palestinian police officer. 

17:48    The Israeli jeep leaves and no checkpoint is left

18:00    We leave