Getting kicked out of the Checkpoint

Thursday morning, I had checkpoint duty with Andreas. We woke up at about 3:50, had some coffee, got dressed expecting cooler weather and worked our way up the hill to the checkpoint. Andreas was outside, minding the lines going thru the wall, and I was inside minding the people in the metal detector and ID verification lines. When I got inside, I found only one metal detector open. I waited a bit, since it was before 5AM when the gates are open, but then as I saw people beginning to run down to the metal detector lines, I contacted the Hotline people and said that only one was open, and that was going to be a problem. They said they would see what they could do about it. So, I decided to leave that area, and move into the ID area to see how many of those lines were open.


Initially, only 2 were open, so I again, waited a while, until people were getting thru the metal detector lines and the ID lines were beginning to back up. I then called the Hotline again, to indicated that more lines were needed. They again, said they would see what they could do.


Meanwhile, as I was standing there watching the ID lines, 2 soldiers were standing on the other side of the ID booths, watching me. I tried not to make eye contact, and I did move around a bit, but they seemed to move where I moved and continued STARING at me. It was difficult not making eye contact with them. But, I decided to leave that area, and go back to the Metal Detector area to see if another line was opened up. So, I left. It takes 2 or 3 minutes to get there, but I had a cigarette on the way, so it may have been 5 minutes when I arrived back in the metal detector area.

I looked around, saw lots more people in that area, and indeed the second metal detector was open, so there was movement. Then I looked up and saw 3 soldiers in the walkway above the metal detectors. 2 were the ones from the front, and now there was a third. One of the soldiers was sticking his tongue out at me. Again, I tried to ignore it, but as I walked, he followed me with his tongue sticking out, so I indicated to him (I'm not sure how I did that) that he should stop that. It was definitely annoying me. He got it, and laughed, and his friends weren't exactly sure what happened, but they were laughing too.


Since I had completed my task of determining there was another metal detector open, I decided I would get out of view of the soldiers, and move myself back to the ID area. So, I used my female sex and was able to move in front of all the people in line to go back thru the metal detector.

When I got to the ID lines, I noticed that there were now 4 booths open, so the lines were moving, though there was some delay. Also, I noticed the 3 soldiers on the walkway above the area I was now in, again STARING at me, leaning on the bar, talking to each other, and just staring at me. They were really obnoxious. They must have called the Checkpoint Security, and they must have just been waiting to see what I would do next. The Checkpoint Security person came to me and said "Come with me". I had no idea that they had called him, and didn't know why the Security man was saying that so I said "Why? What have I done?" He continued by saying "Just come with me." and led me through the ID gate to the door going out of the Checkpoint, and told me to stay there. From there I could still do my job of watching the lines, counting women, seeing if anyone is stopped. I just wasn't able to see all of the lines.

Meanwhile, the 3 guards moved along the walkway to near where I was, still staring at me and talking and laughing. They were smoking, so I pointed to a sign right near me that said No Smoking. They laughed and said "No smoking down there. OK up here." I just kept pointing at the sign. So one of them said "Want to take a picture?" One of the other army guards took a picture of me, I think, with his cell phone, cause he called out to me "Do you have blue tooth?" I didn't answer him, but I pulled out my camera, and pretended to take a picture of them. Immediately, the three of them moved away from each other, trying to hide, so that a picture couldn't be taken.

In about a minute, one of the soldiers was standing next to me saying "Show me the picture". I told him I hadn't taken any, but he said "Show me". So, I started showing him the pictures on my camera to show him I hadn't taken one of him. Unfortunately, there were some pictures on the camera from the demonstration at Umm Salamona. There were some close ups of soldiers. There were also some pictures from Tuq'ua showing soldiers in the distance. He was NOT happy with that. He told me to delete ALL pictures that have soldiers in them. I complained, but started going thru the pictures, showing him I had deleted the ones with soldiers. There was a picture of a bunch of people on a hill. It was actually kids from the school in Tuq'ua. He said "delete it". I said "They are not soldiers, they are students." He said to delete it again, and I said "But they are not soldiers." so he let it go. There was another shot of a tower used by the army. He said "Delete it". I said, "There are no soldiers in that picture." He said "This is my country." I pushed back a bit, but deleted it anyway. Interesting, that he didn't want the picture of a tower to remain.


Anyway, after he had gone thru all my pictures on the camera to see that there were no soldiers and no towers, he told me to leave. I asked why, and he just said "Leave", showing me the way go back into Palestine.


So, by 5:45, I was back on the Bethlehem side of the checkpoint, and Andreas was going over to cover the Jerusalem side.

A couple of things struck me. First, I felt that I had to push back on the soldier when he was sticking his tongue out at me. He was joking and jesting and laughing, as he was doing it, and I felt I wanted him to stop. It was WRONG for him to be doing that. So, I had to push back, and I did. The second was when the soldier was so defiant about me deleting all the pictures that had soldiers or towers in it. Again, I HAD to push back. I HAD to let him know that I was not happy. I pushed back with the picture of the students on the hill, which I did NOT erase, and I pushed back on the picture of the tower, which I DID erase (it's his country, you know). But I HAD to push back. The overall result was that the soldier probably was with me LONGER than he wanted, and that I had to go back. MAYBE he won't stick his tongue out at someone again, and MAYBE they won't laugh and stare at someone again. But, I'm not sure about that. It's easy when you are in control to do all the inhumane things that you do, since you ARE in control, you know. Anything you do is OK.


It brings me to the students that were throwing stones on the road. That's the only way they know to push back. The response to that was to have the army come to the school, search it, throw tear gas in the classrooms, and close the school down for the day. Again, the Push Back results in LOTS of problems.

I'm not sure I'm any better than the students. I'm also not sure I would, or could, do anything else. I'm going to have to learn to smile and deal with it, if I expect to stay here. I'm glad I don't live here. It would be too hard for me.



I am an Ecumenical Accompanier (EA) for the World Council of Churchs' (WCC) Ecumenical Advocacy Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The views herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of the WCC. If you would like to disseminate the information contained herein, please first contact the EAPPI Communications Officer at eappi-co@jrol.com. You may also contact the US office via www.eappi-us.org. Thank you and peace to you and to this Land.