Driver Jamal Hamdan from Nablus seemed tired of the behavior of the Israeli soldiers who forced him to leave his vehicle at Attara checkpoint near Ramallah to examine the trunk of the vehicle under heavy rain without paying attention to the cold weather where he had to wait for minutes until the soldiers allowed him to return home.
He told the Palestinian Information Center: “The soldiers at the crossing only meant to spoil the mood of citizens and drivers alike and those practices are part of the collective punishment of Palestinians traveling between the northern and central West Bank.”
A shameful inspection
Hamdan’s story is not different from that of Eid family from Jansafot between Nablus and Qalqiliya who were on their way to visit their relatives in Nablus. The five members of the family were forced out of their car at the Jit checkpoint on Friday morning and the rain was increasing without any consideration by the Israeli soldiers to the bad weather conditions.
University students suffer greatly from the practices of Israeli soldiers and settlers at the checkpoints where young people are sometimes subjected to humiliation and strip searches as they cross these checkpoints.
In the cold weather the soldiers deliberately apply such practices just to provoke the youths.
Driver Ashraf Salman complains of the humiliating treatment of soldiers the long queue of vehicles and the prohibition of the use of certain roads by Palestinian drivers by Israel. As a result Palestinian movement has been reduced to a number of main streets in the West Bank.
He pointed out that the checkpoints impose exhausting waiting periods on Palestinians force them to walk under difficult weather conditions for long distances or move from one car to another which increases their daily suffering and threatens their health.
Difficult decision
“I waited for an hour and a half at the Taybeh crossing in a very rainy weather” says citizen May Marahil who visited her brother this week at the Ramon Prison. “I was allowed to cross after a long wait under the pretext of security checks and I saw floods approaching me.”
She added that visiting and exiting Nablus these days requires a bold decision from Palestinian families and when they return they hear words of congratulations over their safe return following their success in accessing checkpoints because the experience of waiting in the traffic at checkpoints in the cold weather is harsh.
The Israeli occupation authorities continue to violate the freedom of movement of Palestinian citizens in the West Bank by erecting several permanent checkpoints as well as flying checkpoints and placing obstacles on many roads where Palestinians are prohibited from moving except through gates.
