The machinery of oppression

To get from the West Bank to Jerusalem everyone (except the Israeli settlers) must go through a check point. So we might understand something of the every day experience for Palestinians we were sent through a pedestrian checkpoint.

 You queue, about half an hour in our case, in front of a metal turnstile under surveillance cameras. A plain clothes Israeli with an ear piece and clip-on microphone watches from our side. The turnstile lets through two or three people at a time and then locks with one person held half way through - on this occasion it was me caught in the middle. 
Once through you are in between two locked turnstile in a caged area. There is an X-ray machine and a metal detector gate. Your bag with all your metal items goes through the machine, you through the gate. You present your documents through a slot to an army officer, Palestinians must also touch a fingerprint machine, and then you pass through a second turnstile under the eyes of another plain clothes police officer.

While the machines have things in common with airport checks, the experience does not. A friend said he felt like we were being treated like cattle. Airports are by and large clean and clinical places, this was the opposite. 

You are being processed and you are required to submit to the process, to the military officers, to the machinery. It would appear to be designed to demonstrate on a daily basis the differences in power between the Israeli military and the Palestinians. 

The Palestinians go through it in different ways - some talking, a group of teenage girls in front of us laughed and chatted and chewed gum, some men next to me looked like they were going through with gritted teeth. Most people were quiet. 

The whole experience took about 45 minutes but at the busy times - going to work, going to school or college - it will take much longer. Our whole journey from Abu Dis to the Damascus Gate bus station took about an hour and three quarters - that was at a quiet part of the day. Abu Dis is two and a half miles from the Damascus Gate, before the wall, before the turnstiles and before the occupation, the same bus journey we have been told would take about 15 minutes. 

Finally you go through a third turnstile into the open air at the foot of the Mount of Olives which Christians believe was the location of the sermon on the mount. 

Blessed are the meek? I’m not sure any one going through that process would agree. 

No picture today as the Israeli guards would not have responded positively. 
Martin




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