International Checkpoint Watch - Daily Observations

Date:            19/09/01                                  Time:  8:10 - 10:10

Place Observed:  Surda

Number of Soldiers Present:  Four

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

Events Witnessed:

8:10-  Arrived a few minutes earlier to find a huge group of men waiting to cross to Ramallah.  Four soldiers were “herding” them forward in groups of about 20-30 at a  time.  There is a tank, an APC, a truck, a tent and several soldiers on the hill.

From Ramallah to Surda small groups are allowed to cross.  Women are allowed to cross from Surda to Ramallah.  School-students were not allowed to pass.  Two middle-aged men are sitting on the railing, their ID’s were taken at around 8:00. According to the men one of the soldiers told them to pass then the next soldier said that they were not allowed to and confiscated their ID’s for having “violated the rules.”  They are both dressed in office-clothes and going to work in Ramallah.

8:15-  The soldier in front of the group of men is holding them back, pushing people in the chest if they try to walk.

8:20-  Four new soldiers arrive in the car from the hill.  They start shouting immediately when they come out of the truck.  We both know at least two of these soldiers from before (1 Ethiopian and 1 tall Israeli, not immigrant) and know that they have tended to be more abusive than others.  They are hitting and pushing people back, and they make a whole group of about 20 men go back to behind the cement blocks again after the other two soldiers allowed them to come forward.

8:25-  Soldiers are now leaving the men to wait a few minutes before they start letting small groups through again.

8:30-  The group has now dispersed.  A young man was “escorted” from where the taxis are to the checkpoint.  His ID is confiscated, we don’t know why.

8:40-  The young man gets his ID back and is allowed to leave.

8:45-  Two of the soldiers run after a taxi that had been allowed to pass from the Surda side, but then upset the soldiers by stopping to pick up passengers about 20 meters from where the soldiers are.  He has to turn around, with his passengers and go back to the Surda side.  Next taxi is also turned back to Surda.

8:50-  One of the men waiting gets his ID back and leaves.

9:00-  More students are passing from Ramallah now.  An ambulance is stopped and the soldiers open the doors and check the back before it is allowed to pass.

9:05-  One of the soldiers come over to the detained man who is sitting next to us and asks him why he is sitting there.  When he replies that he is waiting to get his ID back the soldier looks puzzled and goes to the blocks where they keep their things.  Comes back with the ID and the man leaves.  Immediately after that another man has his ID taken.

9:20-  A man driving a truck with vegetables for the hospital in Ramallah is not allowed to pass despite having papers that say both in Arabic and Hebrew that he is going to the hospital.  The solders turn him away while leaning against the blocks, smoking and grinning at him.  He tells us “they just told me that I am not allowed to pass while they were laughing at me.”

9:35-  A woman comes from Surda to ask if she can pass in a taxi with her son who is sick.  She is speaking Arabic, which none of the soldiers at this shift do.  Her son has to walk through on crutches, he is around 12 years old.

9:45-  A car is allowed to pass with a sick woman after arguing for about five minutes.  The soldiers are screaming in the faces of people who are trying to negotiate their way through.

The soldiers come over to say we have to move as we are interfering in their work, which we have absolutely not been doing.  One soldier tells us that we are “bothering his eyes.”  He says also that this piece of road now belongs to the army and that we are not allowed to be there.

9:50-  A boy is turned back coming from Ramallah.  He is about 20.  They are now checking everyone with a bag.

9:55-  Two of the soldiers walk up to the taxis on the Surda side.  A third soldier goes up and they confiscate three taxi-drivers’ keys.  We ask them why and they tell us because “the taxi-drivers know they are not supposed to come that far down.”  This is not true as the rules change from day to day depending on which soldiers are there and what their orders of the day are.

10:00-  Two of the soldiers run down ‘chasing’ the taxis on the Ramallah side which also have been coming too close in their opinion.  One of the soldiers kicks in the back-door of one taxi and takes his car-keys.

10:05-  An ambulance with sirens and lights passes from Surda without being checked.

10:10-  As we are getting ready to leave two of the soldiers are getting ready to walk up to the Surda side while another one of them is jumping up and down and in a mock-voice saying “ani rotse! ani rotse!” (“I want! I want!”).  Two minutes later two soldiers throw a stun-grenade amongst the taxi-drivers on the Surda side.