International Checkpoint
Watch Report
International
Checkpoint Watch (ICW)
Report on the visit to the
village of Deir Ibsia
March 22, 2002
Context:
Southwest
of Ramallah lies the Israeli checkpoint of Ein Arik, which occupies the main
westward road from Ramallah to numerous villages. In the hills immediately west of the checkpoint itself is the
small village of Deir Ibsia. Still
further west of Deir Ibsia are approximately 40 villages that are inhabited by
some 150,000 people, all of which are dependant on the road for access to
Ramallah, the only urban center in the area.
Most of the area, including some of the villages, is in Area C, though
Ein Arik is Area B. To the
immediate north are three Israeli settlements.
The Ein Arik checkpoint was established on 8 March
2001, the same day as the Surda checkpoint and many others in the Ramallah
district. Since then, the residents
of the 40 villages have had to pass under the scrutiny and harassment of Israeli
soldiers in order to pass to Ramallah. On
20 February 2002, several days after a Palestinian was shot and forced to bleed
to death by the soldiers, six Israeli soldiers were shot and killed by a
Palestinian gunman. Since that day,
the checkpoint has been completely closed to both vehicle and pedestrian
traffic. Whereas before Palestinian
pedestrians could at least make their case to the soldiers as to why they needed
to pass, now the soldiers are completely unapproachable.
On 22 February the Israeli military dug three deep trenches across the
road and placed barbed wire between them. Soldiers
remain at the checkpoint and prevent anyone who is able from attempting to walk
over the trenches, thus forcing people to walk half an hour to one and a half
hours through the mountains to Ein Arik in order to get transportation to
Ramallah. In addition, from 20
February to 20 March 2002, a near complete curfew was imposed on Deir Ibsia.
On the Way to Deir Ibsia:
Six ICW participants arrived at the Ein Arik
checkpoint at approximately 9:45 after a public taxi ride from Ramallah.
Upon arriving at the checkpoint and walking across the turned-up road,
three of the six soldiers came down from their Armored Personnel Carrier (APC)
to question us. After five minutes of questioning, we were permitted to pass.
When the group walked up the road three Palestinians from the nearby
village of Qiba, two old women and a young man with a broken leg, approached and
asked if we could assist them in convincing the soldiers to let them pass.
One of the women, accompanied by her sister, had to go to the hospital to
follow up on an operation and her nephew had to have his leg treated. The group returned to the checkpoint and asked the soldiers
to let the Palestinians pass, as they were physically unable to walk through the
mountains to receive the medical care the needed. The soldiers refused, saying the road was closed.
ICW members insisted and reminded the soldiers of international law and
their obligations to refuse to obey inhumane orders.
The soldier in charge responded: "I am the commanding officer here,
and I decide what is humanity and what is not humanity."
Nevertheless, when the ICW members refused to leave the commander said that,
"If you promise not to return with any more Arabs, they can pass."
One ICW member assisted the young man on crutches across the trenches and
the group returned up the hill to Deir Ibsia.
The Hosts of the ICW trip:
Upon reaching Deir Ibsia, Deeb Kemal, our host in the village, met the
group and invited them to his home. Mr.
Kamal was born in Deir Ibsia but spent many years in Germany.
He is now married to a German, Brigitte Kamal.
Mr. Kamal was the owner of a textile business and a shoe store in
Ramallah, but both have been forced to close due to the economic hardships of
the Israeli closure on the West Bank and he is now unemployed.
Mr. Kemal introduced us to Najeeh Taleb, ex-school director and
supermarket owner, his brother Ali Taleb, and Husam Taleb, an agricultural
engineer; all of whom he invited to his home to speak with us.
Later, during a tour of the village, we were also introduced to Sana’,
the village nurse, and two village council members.
Observations in the Village of Deir Ibsia:
Soldier Harrassment:
Deir Ibsia’s 1,600 residents have lived in intimidation since the Ein
Arik checkpoint was established on the edge of the village.
Since February 20th the soldier’s have treated the villagers
particularly harsh. For one month
after the shooting of the soldiers at the checkpoint the residents were not
permitted to drive their vehicles in the village.
The tires of any vehicle the soldiers thought was being driven were
slashed, including those of commercial vehicles coming to the village to
transport food and cooking fuel to the people there.
The villagers were also told that they couldn’t even walk around in
their village, but the soldiers stopped enforcing that prohibition.
In addition, the only grocery store, owned by Najeeh Taleb, and the only
gas station in the village were closed. Village
residents were not formally told what restrictions were being put on them.
Instead they had to learn by trial and error as the what they were
permitted to do. The digging up of
the road cut the phone lines to the village, which required 14 days to fix
because the soldiers impeded efforts to do so.
In a different incident, a soldier shot the power lines and the villagers
lived without electricity for three days.
The restrictions above were lifted upon the arrival of American Middle
East Envoy Anthony Zinni on 20 March. However,
the soldiers continue to block the road at the checkpoint and post soldiers on
the hills that overlook and include the village.
Soldiers also frequently drive their APCs through the village, ruining
the roads, sometimes breaking the water pipes of the houses, and frightening the
residents as they drive by.
In addition, soldiers also come up to houses in the village to conduct
searches or threaten the families. At
times they break windows or cause other damages to the houses.
Soldiers had come to the house of our host, Mr. Kemal, three times.
They threatened that if there was ever any resistance activity at his
house that they would occupy it. The
house has never been used for such a purpose, but since then, Mr. Kemal and his
family have stayed off of the roof of their home, for fear of triggering the
soldiers to act on their threat. Only
Mr. Kemal’s German passport has prevented the soldiers from searching the
house.
Economy and Services:
Ramallah, the only urban center in the area, is
critical to Deir Ibsia and the other villages west of Ein Arik checkpoint as an
economic and service center. Villagers
must go there for hospitals, labs, pharmacies, banks, electricity and water
authorities, petrol and other basic imports, higher education institutions, and
markets for agricultural produce. The
village is extremely poor due to army blockade, with no access to the previous
job market. Before Intifada, 50% of
men of Deir Ibsia worked in Israel and nearby settlements, but since the
Intifada they have been cut off from such employment.
Another 10% worked for the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), but
reaching their offices in Ramallah is very difficult since the total closure of
Ein Arik checkpoint. Some unsuccessful private enterprises involving chicken,
sheep, and textile fabrication have been attempted, but mass production has no
market to sell the products or to buy the necessary inputs.
Chicken farms, for example, cannot import sufficient feed.
Transformation from self-sufficient agricultural production to
semi-commercial production was completely disrupted by the same isolation.
Some income continues to be brought in from limited expatriate
remittances (mainly in the USA) and savings, mostly invested in housing.
Provisions and supplies in the village are very basic
and limited. Often, the only access
to supplies is through Safa (a village on the Green Line), where Israeli
products may be imported. As a
result of recent hardship, most people started to plant vegetables around their
houses again to build up the self-sufficiency and food security of the village,
but not always with success. Some
gardens were washed away by recent heavy rain.
Both income and self-produced food are still in short supply, requiring
the people buy on credit from nearby village grocery stores.
Actual debit accounts with various supermarkets are estimated at 200,000
NIS (US $45,000).
Health Services:
One small government-run clinic exists in the village
in basement of a building, which opened only 4 months ago.
It has very limited space, and is dark and damp. The PNA Ministry of
Health (MOH) contributes a salary for two employees: a doctor from Jerusalem and
a local nurse. There is no midwife
in the village or neighboring villages to help deliveries.
Basic training for midwives and other skills had been planned for this
month, but could not take place due to the closure.
Fortunately there have been no deliveries during past month.
Before the complete closure of the Ein Arik checkpoint and the tightening
of the checkpoints in the Jerusalem area during the same period, basic services
were provided by the doctor, who traveled to the village three a week.
The doctor has not visited since 20 February.
Only the doctor can prescribe antibiotics, of which there is still some
stock in the village, thus rendering them unusable.
Basic chronic disease medications have run out, including insulin and
medication for asthma. One old man
died recently of asthma due to lack of medication.
Vaccines, in addition to first aid materials like gauze and disinfectants
are also out of stock. There is
some hypertension and CVD medicine left, but very little.
The nurse can only dispense cough medicine and other cold relief for
children with acute infections, according to MOH regulations.
This medication is also in short supply.
Last week the nurse walked through the hills to Ramallah to get basic
vaccines. She had to carry them in
an ice-box during her return walk. On
her way back, three soldiers caught and stopped her in the mountains. She showed them all the contents of the icebox, but they
still insisted she had to go back to Ramallah.
She then had to take a longer way through another valley to finally get
the medication back to the village. The
village nurse seems to have trust and respect from community.
She feels very responsible for her community and is ready to take risks
to treat them.
The treatment of serious injuries and emergency
situations is impossible in the village. There
is no access for any ambulances, including those of the International Committee
of the Red Cross and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
Husam Talib told us one story of his brother who was shot in the arm one
night by soldiers in front of his house. After
he was shot for no apparent reason, he was taken without consultation by jeep to
a Tel Aviv hospital where he was treated. He
was then released in a village other than his own and was forced to return to
Deri Ibsia on his own and at his own risk through the mountains. He was then
presented with a bill of 50,000 NIS for the treatment.
People are terrified of night emergencies, because there is no way to get
access to the soldiers and even ask them for permission to pass the checkpoint.
The soldiers are so tense that they often shoot at anybody moving in the
dark.
Sewage and Solid Waste Disposal:
Every house or group of houses has a septic tank,
which needs periodic emptying by sewage trucks. This had been disrupted during the period between the killing
of the soldiers in February and General Zinni’s arrival. Some of these holes have overflowed in recent weeks, partly
due to lack of discharge and partly because of rain. Garbage collection used to take place twice a week with a
truck that is shared with three other nearby villages. During the last month, garbage simply accumulated and had to
be burned locally.
Village water comes through pipes shared with the
adjacent settlements. Settlers have been known to cut the water to the village
whenever stones are thrown at settler cars on the by-pass road, which is
forbidden to Palestinians.
Education:
There are two government schools in Deir Ibsia: one
primary schools for girls up to 8th grade, and a secondary for boys
and girls up to 12th grade. Only
50% of the teachers can reach the village at this time.
According to village residents, there is a need for infrastructure
improvements. Several high school
students used to go to private schools in Ramallah, but they cannot reach their
schools now. Some 20 students of
Birzeit University from Deir Ibsia are also prevented from reaching Birzeit
under the tight siege.
Requests of the Residents of Deir Ibsia to ICW:
Summary:
General Zinni’s visit has eased the curfew in Deir
Ibsia: cars are allowed to move within the village, petrol is allowed to be
sold, supermarkets are allowed to open to the public, and vegetable trucks are
allowed to enter from other villages west of the checkpoint and to use
loudspeakers. A short break of the
total siege was also made when the checkpoint was open for four hours of free
passage for pedestrians. Since then
the checkpoint has been completely closed, as before. This feign at lifting the siege is very damaging for the
local population because it gives the impression by Israeli government
propaganda that the siege is no longer in effect.
In fact, village life is still restricted in ways that violate the
villagers’ basic human rights and physical needs. The people of Deir Ibsia may take steps to create a
self-sufficient system of basic food production or find other ways to adjust to
the difficult circumstances. A
partnership without outside sources of supplies or income would help.
But the village would still be short on medical care, education for the
young people, employment, and basic services only found in Ramallah.
What people of Deir Ibsia need most is the removal of
military checkpoints and the opening the of the road to Ramallah in order to
seek work, market their goods, go to school and university, bring in provisions,
and get the doctor to the village at least three times a week. They say they
could manage their lives if this were done.