Checkpoint

In February one of our friends here, S, was arrested. He was mistakenly identified as having thrown a stone at a car, and despite the car owner correcting the mistake after the soldiers had hold of S, he was still taken to prison, where he spent 12 days before being released and fined 2500 shekels.

Last Tuesday we visited the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. There is a checkpoint leading into the old town, and another to get into the Mosque itself. On the way into the old town, S was pulled away from our group to have his ID checked. On the way into the Mosque all our Palestinians hosts had their IDs taken, and when they went to collect them after the visit, S was made to wait for 15 minutes.

I've seen and been through check points before, and I've seen people being taken to the side and made to wait. I've heard stories of birth and death at checkpoints trying to get to the hospital, but I don’t think I’d really felt the reality of how they feel until Tuesday. The fear for my friend when the solider led him off, was physical, I could feel it in my stomach and heart. I knew they would probably only hold him back for a minute or two, but it gave me such a sense of fear, injustice and anger.

On the way out we left through a one way exit as S went to get his ID card, but when he didn't come out after us we were worried. Our Palestinian guide joked about not helping him get released if he was arrested again. We’re still too new to this to find the humour, but under this occupation, as we've been told several times already, if you can’t laugh, you can’t survive.