International Checkpoint Watch - Daily Observations

Date:            08/12/01                                  Time:  12:30 - 15:30

Place Observed:  Qalandia

Number of Soldiers Present: 

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

Events Witnessed:

12:30 - 13:30-  All men and women were stopped and made to show ID until about 13:00, after which the Israeli soldiers forced only men to present ID.  A soldier explained to me that “only blue ID gets in.”  When questioned further the soldier turned his back to me.

Most women, after 13:00, were permitted to pass without showing ID, but soldiers singled out some women (one out of every five), usually with children, and verbally harassed them for not presenting ID.  Soldiers frequently screamed in the faces of these women before waving them away.

13:30 - 14:30-  All men with West Bank ID were denied permission to pass to  Jerusalem side.  A group of five men from the Palestine Ministry of Education were held behind the checkpoint for at least two hours (they were still being held back when I left at 15:30).  Each of these men had special permits from the Israeli government, which the soldiers ignored. When asked why these men weren’t allowed passage, the soldier replied to me, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

During this hour soldiers fired numerous shots into the air.

14:00-  Three soldiers drove their jeep into the old airport and began firing at a small group of young boys who were outside the fence.  The soldiers then drove up the hill and climbed into Qalandia and fired rubber bullets, rubber-coated steel bullets, steel pellets, tear gas and concussion grenade into residential areas.

As I stood, alone, outside a buisness,  one soldier trained his rifle on me.  I moved behind a car all three soldiers ran toward me and threw a tear gas grenade.  I was the only person in the area.  Soldiers resumed firing on the boys, who were by now throwing stones, and into Qalandia, forcing tens of women and children to take cover behind parked cars.  Soldiers then shot at parked cars, the only shelter for families trying to make their ways home.

14:45-  I ducked behind a car with a group of about seven boys. Soldiers shot up the car, and one boy, ducking down directly next to me, was hit in the face, either directly or by shrapnel.  He held his bleeding head as we rushed him to a van, and the soldiers kept up their fire.

After the boy was taken away I walked up the hill to the soldiers and told them “You just shot a 13 year-old boy in the face,” to which one soldier replied “In the face! Very good!” and gave me the thumbs up.  We argued for a few minutes, and they agreed to go to the other side of the fence, but they made another incursion as soon as I walked away.