Today was the first day of the fourth international FFIPP conference. About 100 people met at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem for a day of academic-like sessions, befitting the Faculty For Israeli-Palestinian Peace. Like most academic conferences, there often wasn’t enough time for discussion after the speakers finished speaking, though tomorrow more discussion time is built in to the schedule.
We met in an unheated auditorium, which meant wearing sweaters and coats appropriate to the chilly rain outside. More troubling, though, was the inability of ten students from Gaza to get through the checkpoints into Israel. Also unable to get through was Eyad El-Sarraj, head of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, who I’ve heard speak in Boston. At the end of the day we heard that he and the people he was traveling with were forced to turn back at a checkpoint when Israeli tanks fired in their direction. Perhaps they’ll get through tomorrow.
One woman who did get in from Gaza, a 30-year old student, described the difficulties of traveling even within the Gaza Strip itself. Getting from the refugee camp she lives in to her university and job in Gaza City sometimes means waiting for five or six hours until she’s allowed through. Sometimes residents walk three kilometers along the beach to avoid closed checkpoints, despite the risk of getting shot by Israeli soldiers. It’s either that or miss exams, lose a job, or simply waste a day waiting.
Her description is consistent with many others I’ve heard over the past week, confirmed by observers who often stand at checkpoints for hours to document what happens. Sometimes having a permit gets one through relatively quickly, but sometimes the permit is ignored, or it works at one checkpoint but not the next. Sometimes checkpoints are simply closed for hours at a time, leaving commuters and everyone else stranded.
Even if checkpoints were needed for security, the arbitrariness is hard to justify. It’s easy to see why so many Palestinians consider their main purpose to be harassment, designed to make their lives so miserable they leave the West Bank or Gaza for good. The result is resentment and rage. It’s easy to see why.
Interesting posts.
Just a thought about the checkpoints. However admittedly inconvenient and stressful they are, has anyone brought up or asked at any of these meetings about how many bombs have been found because of them?