From Occupied Palestine, With Love: pictures from Beit Furik checkpoint 8-13-06 #2/2

the western end of the terminal, originally uploaded by michaelramallah.

complete blog entry about the day at Beit Furik checkpoint:
http://occupiedlove.blogspot.com/2006/08/checkpoints-checkpoints-guess-what.html

...Today, we received a call at about 7:30am that the same checkpoint, Beit Furik, was completely closed. So we went. The same soldiers from last night were there, and were very unhappy to see us. We stayed at Beit Furik from 8:00-1:30. In that time we forced the formation of a humanitarian line to expedite children, the elderly and the sick. Also, we organized a student’s line. It is final exam season for the students of Al-Najah, and today is a big day for their exams. So, the Palestinians sorted the students from their lines, filled the car lane with bodies, and forced the soldiers to check them quickly in groups. We had many victories today, from UN workers, to pregnant women, to sick kids, to ambulances and on and on and on. We were so effective that the soldiers turned to assaulting us, threatening us, and eventually calling the police. Since the military cannot arrest us, they had the police come who seized our IDs, checked our bags, and ordered us to leave. Well, since we were at a checkpoint that under today's conditions took over five hours to pass for Palestinians, we got in the line and spent another hour or so there. Also in the action we continuously circumvented the military to cross the checkpoint to deliver water, and to advocate for individual people who either had special needs or who were being completely denied entry.

Our presence at checkpoints really does a lot. First, we get a lot of people through one by one. Second we force the soldiers to work quicker, stop them from taking breaks to sit and chat. We also physically protect Palestinians as they cross through while the soldiers threaten to beat or shoot them. We translate. We bring water and supplies. We also organize the work for the soldiers to maximize speed. When they have five soldiers checking a car and one checking the four hundred or so people waiting, we yell at them until they put another few soldiers on ID duty. We force them to allow the Palestinians to sort themselves into priority lines, and we raise their level of protection. So for instance, when we cross the checkpoint illegally, often times, a few Palestinians mix in with us and cross under our protection. Today, after many had been waiting for over four and a half hours, a group of men ran through the crossing, and did not turn back when the soldiers saw them. As punishment, the soldiers completely closed the crossing to the remaining four hundred people. Because we argued with them, called the Israeli authorities in control of the area and other such things they had to reopen. By the time we left, a few Palestinians took over our job, locating those who needed to cross quickly, and advocating for them with the soldiers. We are growing....

waiting underneath of a watch tower, originally uploaded by michaelramallah.

queue, originally uploaded by michaelramallah.

women's line from the back, originally uploaded by michaelramallah.

here is the separate, second line for women we were able to negotiate.

one day we were called by a friend from the village of Beit Furik that the checkpoint he needs to cross to leave the village and catch a taxi to university in Nablus, is closed. he says hundreds and soon thousands of people are waiting. we left our apartment in Balata refugee camp and spent the day negotiating with soldiers, advocating for the waiting Palestinians, and documenting the checkpoint closure. from transporting water to those unable to leave the terminal, to blocking soldiers with our bodies, we helped the Palestinians resist the closure that day.