DCO Etzion: Corona and arbitrary treatment

Place:

Etzion DCO

Tags:

Transfer Permits to Israel

Updates during Corona

Observers:

Shlomiet Steinitz, Natany Ginsburg (reporting)

May-24-2021

Morning

10:30- 12:00

An army vehicle entered the parking lot while we were sitting there. It stood there for a while... searching for prey? Then left and returned to the inner enclave.

Two traders spoke to us about the difficulty of entering Israel. Since people in Bethlehem and Hebron have been receiving permits, they’ve also tried with the Palestinian Authority, but came away with empty hands. Asaf said that it was because of the Corona and the truth is neither of them is vaccinated. One of them said that they want to get it at the checkpoint where the workers are vaccinated, adding that his record was completely clean and that there were no problems with anyone in his family as well. The other led us to understand that there were ways to deal with this but did not elaborate. We understood the implied statement

One of them also told us that he had worked with a contractor who himself was working with the Nature Reserve Authority. The contractor now owes him 300,000 shekels and has told him that they would settle with him for 60,000. He has all the details on Whatsapp and has a backup on his own computer.

A young man who was waiting for a friend complained that his driver's license had been taken from him and while his lawyer had said that all was now in order, his license had been taken from him again today. He told the story to one of the traders and then walked off, so we do not know why the license had been taken from him on both occasions. He said that his lawyer would deal the matter the coming Sunday.

Why do we take the trouble to report in Corona times as well?

Because democracy’s watchdogs have fallen asleep on their own watch, so Israeli citizens have no idea what is actually happening in the Occupied Territories, especially now.

Day and night, Israeli soldiers (as the State’s emissaries) help extreme settler-colonists take the law into their own hands, unhampered. They do not stop even in days of a raging pandemic and do not hesitate to harm Palestinians – their bodies, property, and sources of livelihood.

Unceasing harassment of the weakened Palestinian population inflicts psychological harm as well. All – from babies through and including the elderly and the ill – are open prey to Jewish violence and terrorism which the settler-colonists are only too eager to exert.

We of MachsomWatch will not cease to report, certainly not now during these Corona times and under the threat of annexation, about the settlers’ increased rampages, those who hurry to set facts on the ground helped by the Israeli army.

Israel rules the West Bank, and by force of the Geneva Convention, article no. 27, it is committed to enforcing law and order there. The inhabitants of these Occupied Territories have the legal right “to decent treatment of their body and dignity, and should be especially protected against any act of violence”.

Ironically, this is not at all upheld.

Nor shall we cooperate with the commonplace ignoring of the Palestinian people’s suffering, and with the Israeli public’s indifference to it. We shall continue to follow up closely and report the goings-on in the West Bank, in its villages and encampments.

No one should be able to say ‘We knew nothing, we heard nothing’

Location Description

Etzion DCO

See all reports for this place

serves residents of Bethlehem and surrounding villages who need magnetic cards, work permits for Israel, permits for one-time entry for religious or health reasons, various police permits, etc.