Harassment as Military duty in Israel

I thought I would send you a copy of this article from Ha'aretz on the IOF harassment of Palestinians at checkpoints etc. It gives a very good overview of what happens every day to the Palestinians and the harassment they have to put up with.

The Hawara checkpoint that Hass mentions in her article is very close to where we live and we go there semi-regularly to do checkpoint watch. It is the checkpoint which Palestinians need to pass through to get into Nablus. Internationals are denied passage through this checkpoint as the area has been deemed a closed military zone. The Hawara checkpoint was the first place that I did checkpoint watch at after I arrived in Haris.

Generally we try to facilitate the passage of Palestinians and intervene when they have been made to wait, sometimes for extended lengths of time under the pretext of "processing" and "checking" their "huwiyye" (identity cards). The confiscation of a "huwiyye" is a major crisis for Palestinians because it restricts their limited ability to travel even more and if they travel without them they can be detained and arrested for simply not having them.

In the case of Internationals, while we don't have to have a huwiyyea, all foreigners are suppose to carry their passport with them at all times. If you don't you can risk arrest (one of our team was detained for half a day a few weeks ago because she forgot to take her passport with her to Jerusalem). Like Palestinians to have your ID confiscated, even for a few hours, is a major problem (although of course it is worse for Palestinians).

To try and avoid handing over our passports, we carry photocopies of it, often in plastic sleeves which Palestinians use for their Huwiyye. Recently Kate had some "IWPS Identity cards" done up with our photos, but I have not had to use mine yet, so I am not sure how effective it is yet.