Etzion DCO: Selling Confiscated Vehicles
Anat came from Tel Aviv to join us for this shift. She was very knowledgeable as is not always the case when we take guests, and also speaks a good Arabic which helped us. We had told her that we were not always sure of how interesting the shift would be… She had been some years ago at Qalandia checkpoint with us. In the end she received a real baptism into what happens at the DCO.
On our way there we saw new earthwords on the right hand side of the road, but still do not know what is being planned there. It is very difficult to photograph. But it seems that a new road is being planned, why we do not know and have not found anyone to ask in the last shifts. In any case I am not sure we would be given an answer.
As we arrived we saw a group of men in the area near the confiscated vehicles at a gate which we have never seen before, and a religious woman standing not far from them. I got out to photograph and Shlomit and Anat drove into the car park where they were immediately surrounded by Palestinians.
I asked her what was happening and she said that they had come to buy the confiscated vehicles. So now we know that not only are vehicles confiscated but also sold for the benefit of the state. One wonders if the owners are notified before this is done. There were also Palestinians amongst the group. As I turned away, she asked if I was a leftist.. maybe she saw something on my face.. and when I said I was, she opened a flood gate of filth and started shouting at me that I knew nothing, only she did who had lived in Sylwan . I don’t remember all she said but she was shouting and her face was so filled with hatred. That I need to learn about history. That I should go back to Europe!!! That I was not a Jew. That I had no God. That I should not be in Israel. At least she did not say I should go back to Germany as others have done. I answered that the God I had was not the same as her God of hate. There was much more. A pity I did not think to tape her but at such moments and in such situations I find it very hard to think or act clearly. Some of what she said I do not want to put down on paper. One of the group also stopped the car to shout at the Palestinian standing next to me that one day he would gather the Palestinians from Hebron and hang them from the gallows and then kindly included me in that remark. It was not even the remarks but the contorted faces of hate and malevolence which, used as I thought I was to such situations, I find it hard to find the words to describe how I felt. Nor why this time it affected me more than at other times.
I also photographed the lady as she walked to her car and she screamed at me that I had not asked her permission to photograph her. I answered that as someone of her group was photographing me I did not understand what her problem was.
In the meantime Shlomit was dealing with the following cases:
M, who is a dealer in “alte zachen”, had been attacked by a religious Jew in Rishon Lezion… he said he had a long beard… with a knife. It is not clear what the reason for the attack was but the fact that the attacker used a knife and made a long cut in Musa’s face showed that he had no friendly intentions. He was also suffering from pain in his fractured ribs. The whole episode was caught by cameras but the bottom line is that the man has been deprived of his permit and has no way of earning a living even though as so often happens he was the victim. The case is now in court and we gave him numbers of Yesh Din and Malak from Leap to whom he spoke while we were there. It is bitter that he is entitled to rest at home for four weeks. Who will compensate him. This was eight months ago. He has not been able to find work. He took a lawyer who does not seem to be doing his job. And in the meantime his attacker is walking around free. Change the identities to Palestinian and think of where he, as a Palestinian, would be then.
As we write there are always cases of those who are prevented to whom we give Sylvia’s details, tell them not to go to a lawyer and that if it is necessary she or one of her team will refer them to one of our lawyers.
There were these following cases:
A young man who was stopped in Haifa and lives in Bethlehem had his permit taken away from him by a policeman who claimed that it was no longer valid. He is a nurse at a retirement home in Kiryat Ata!!!
Another man whom, he said, Malak had helped with his prevention and had happily gone back to work with a still valid permit, but when he got to the checkpoint he was sent back and is again prevented. Malak told him to take it easy and she would deal with it.
Sometimes there is a situation which is very funny although it actually is not. Although we called and called no one appeared at the window to open the turnstile. The younger people who are thin, managed to work it so that they can get through. But a gentleman who tried to get through got stuck. Shlomit wrote to A. telling him the man was stuck but, of course, the latter ignored the message and has also changed the setting so that we cannot know that he received it. I told him not to breathe and he managed to squeeze through to freedom and I told him that he would have to go on a “regimented diet”, and all those who were in the waiting room laughed. The room was fairly full when the soldiers had gone on their lunch break. If one were naïve, one would ask why they cannot do this in two shifts so that people do not have to wait. But we are no longer naïve. Just angry, frustrated and helpless to do more than give first aid and wish them luck.
A man of 75 who, because of his age, is entitled to go through the checkpoint without a permit but is prevented by the GSS. He has been prevented for 20 years. All his children have permits and no problem. He has never been in jail or had any problems. Normally we hear of fathers who are prevented because of something their children have done but this is really a weird case even by army logic…. or rather un-logic.