DAY ONE - Immigration and Intimidation

The trip was organised by a friend at Goldsmiths University. Roughly 25 of us were going and most of us were booked on the same flight from Luton airport to Tel Aviv. Having been up at the crack of dawn, we were under strict instructions to split up as soon as we reached the gate at Luton so that we wouldn't be identified as a group.

Israeli immigration is notorious for delaying people and, on occasion, refusing entry to those they suspect of any kind of political activism in relation to Palestine.
For the purposes of the Israeli immigration interrogator, I was traveling alone on a tourism trip to Tel Aviv. The first rule in Israel when visiting the West Bank is don't mention the West Bank!

Upon landing at Ben Gurion airport, I walked through the terminal to the huge immigration hall. The female interrogator barked questions at me:
'Why are you in Israel? What do you know about Israel? Do you know anyone in Israel? Have you been here before? What are you going to see? Have you got accommodation booked? Don't you know there was a war here recently?'
The implication is that no-one in their right mind would want to visit Israel! I answered as naively as I could and after staring suspiciously at me for a few seconds she waved me through. I was stopped again briefly at the exit of the airport and asked the same questions again by a fat guy in uniform but managed to convince him also that I was here to experience the wonderful world of Zionism.

Some of the other members of the group weren't so lucky. All the asian people or those with arabic sounding names were stopped and held for 5 hours under interrogation. We had to leave them behind and they met us much later that evening at the guesthouse. The whole process is not one of intelligence gathering or security (the questions are repetitive and basic), it is merely intimidation. They identify those whom they suspect are likely to sympathise with Palestinians and try to make the whole experience of entering Israel (in order to reach Palestine) as difficult as possible. That way, they hope, you'll think twice about coming back!

A mini-bus was waiting for us and we immediately got a taste of the daily discrimination Palestinians suffer when our driver was accosted by a security official demanding to see his papers. The papers were duly produced and we were on our way but the persecution continued further down the road when an Israeli policeman decided to close the road we were trying to take at a crossroads. A lively discussion ensued in Hebrew but the upshot was we had to drive an extra 45 minutes round the mountainside to reach the West Bank border. Apparently the policeman decided to divert us for no other reason than he identified the driver as Palestinian. This is how the apartheid state operates.

As dusk fell we crossed into the 'occupied territories' (the West Bank). We drove straight through the checkpoint (it's easier getting into the West Bank than getting out!) but saw 3 men lined up against the wall with their hands tied behind their backs. Checkpoints are one of the many faces of the new so called 'enlightened occupation' that oppresses through what I call 'aggressive bureaucracy' and less through overt, wholesale violence (the whole system is still ultimately founded on violence).

The Israeli's largely succeeded in suppressing the second Palestinian Intifada (the violent uprising against occupation - literally means 'shaking off') through brutal and unbridled violence against the mostly defenceless Palestinian civilian population. The oppression of this population now takes a different form (although the violence and threat of violence is still very much an aspect):

• Freedom of movement is severely curtailed by the hundreds of checkpoints all over the West Bank,
  
• perpetual checking of papers degrades and inconveniences,
  
• house demolitions with the excuse that the relevant building or modification permit was not granted (such permits are almost never granted to Palestinians),
• the building of the apartheid wall (declared illegal by the International Court of Justice),
  
• expropriation of farmland on a massive scale,
• imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians without trial,
  
• destruction of agriculture in the name of 'security requirements'.

Of all these 'aggressive bureaucracy' tactics, the one that impacts on most Palestinian lives most regularly is the checkpoint system.



Checkpoints
Palestinians are routinely held up for hours at checkpoints for no other reason than to make their lives difficult. These checkpoints are on the main Palestinian roads, around major cities and also within cities (most notably Hebron). Their main purpose is to prevent the freedom of movement around the West Bank. A journey that would normally take 30 minutes can take up to 5-6 hours due to delays at checkpoints. The Israeli military also use checkpoints to shut down access to and from major towns for days on end as a means of collective punisment. Many people die every year at checkpoints whilst trying to get to hospital. Palestinian men are regularly humiliated (made to stand on one leg etc.) or physically abused at checkpoints by bored Israeli soldiers. Students in particular are singled out for special treatment and often stopped from reaching university. We heard stories of books being stolen and students being beaten up at checkpoints.
The checkpoint system allows the occupation to tighten its stranglehold on the West Bank at will, often at the whim of whatever officer happens to be in control of a particular checkpoint at any one time.
It should be stressed that most of the checkpoints are within the West Bank and so have little or no security value to the state of Israel. Strategically however, they form part of a network that seeks to split the West Bank up into small enclaves of Palestinian towns. The other elements of this network are the apartheid wall and the settler roads (on which Palestinians are not allowed to travel). Freedom of movement between these Palestinian enclaves is minimised by the occupation.

Above is Qalandiya checkpoint between Nablus and Ramallah. (one of the biggest) Buses and taxis wait here on both sides as Palestinian cars are not allowed to cross.
Above is a checkpoint on the road to Ramallah from the South

To our great relief, the whole group was reunited in Beit Sahour (near Bethlehem) late that evening. We were staying in a family run guesthouse on a hillside overlooking the whole of the town. Here's some shots from Beit Sahour (famous for it's shepherds):