Palestinian reality

The team that will replace us here in Tulkarem has arrived. Friday we showed them the check points we are monitoring. Usually it is calm on Fridays during Ramadan in this area (not to be confused with the situation at the terminals surrounding Jerusalem). 

Queue, the new team reckons

But at this Friday they decided to close one of the check points in close to two hours while we were there. Then you have chaos even at a quiet Friday with queue as far as you can see in both directions. The excuse was a “terror alert” and a military mission in the Tulkarem area. Information regarding how long it would last were not given an some rumors was saying it could would be closed rest of the day. The only ones that were let trough were a lady and her child. This was after crying in front of the soldier for couple of minutes.

There were also flying check points*. Neither those are nice to look at. In other words it turned out to be a brutal meeting with part of the nature of the occupation for the new fellows.

Flying check point: First like this…

And then like this… It seems like a big share of the soldiers has a urgent lack of ordinary body language. A little later they were guiding the traffic by sitting in their vehicle and screaming from a load speaker.

*) flying check point is a check point established temporary on the road between the permanent check points on the West Bank.

War 2, Nablus

I mentioned that it appeared to be more than normal military traffic in and out of Nablus last week. The people there are used to military activities more or less daily and especially in the night, but it was more than usual the last week. In our program we don’t approach the refugee camps while the military is there. However, today, a few days after it has calmed down a bit, we found our way to get an impression of what has gone on there. See video:

Someone else was braver and recorded some of it when it actually happened. After 27 of 64 seconds, or the freeze picture before the start, in the video below a glimpse of the demolition in the video above is shown.

Then compare the machine with that one shown under the heading “War” below and I have the pleasure of stating: “I was right” (“You don’t want this one in your garden”. A check of the dates shows that the machine shown under “War” was on its way to someone else)

Car Accident, See the Photos!

On my way back from a place called Yanoun I was once again involved in a traffic accident. Also this time I survived without any injuries, In fact, no one was hurt. As far as I understand it was four reasons for this crash:

1. The old Mercedes I was in had bad breaks.
2. The brand new Volkswagen Multivan in front of us had incredible breaks.
3. The driver of the Mercedes didn’t keep proper distance to the vehicle in front.
4. A group of military vehicles had decided to turn in the middle of the road and covered both lanes a place people normally drive 120 km/h (I know this from other trips I have been in new cars with speedometers that work)  

 The driver of the Multivan inspects the scratches. The soldier to the lefts is wondering what’s going on. The antenna to the right indicates the direction of the military vehicle.

After the while the military is ready to go back were they come from.

War

Sometimes it is obvious that this is a war and not only slowly degeneration. This is mostly through the media which tells about military raids in the refugee camps in the night, curfews, soldiers being captured or targeted by gunshot, rockets etc. Thursday was a day the machinery around this was very visible for us. On the check point it was heavy traffic with military vehicles. Jeeps, armored vehicles and also a power shovel.

You don’t want this one in your garden. Read more about those who get visits like this at The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions or click here to look how it was when a identical machine were on duty in a town nearby a few weeks ago.

Inside one of the armored vehicles traveling into Nablus there were blindfolded persons, probably prisoners that were going to be set free. A couple of minutes earlier a big bus with partly opaque windows left the same city. It also contained blindfolded persons. The bus was accompanied with military vehicles with well equipped soldiers; among other special things they were wearing knee pads.

Parallel to this and stories about gunfire and bombardment in and towards the refugee camp in Nablus, the life goes on: Small but slow traffic out of the biggest city of the West Bank.

This truck was number 20 in the queue when it arrived the check point. The photo is taken 1 hour and 45 minutes later at the moment it is number one in the queue

Information on Yom Kippur

This morning we were to an agricultural gate again (the Attil gate for locals). Nothing happened there. It was closed all the time. When I called the answer was that all gates at the West Bank are closed due to the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. Sometimes they do this during holidays. One question is: Why didn’t they inform the farmers in advance?  My little private theory is that once you have put a group of people behind a barrier it doesn’t feels natural to respect them by giving proper information.

Farmers waiting for nothing. Jeremy (closest) is not a farmer but one of my colleges.