No town in the West Bank suffers more restrictions than Qalqilya. The population is surrounded on all four sides by the wall, which separates them from their farmland and source of income. Nearby a large Israeli settlement plunders more essential resources. Worse still is the security which accompanies these structures, with dozens of checkpoints policing the town and nearby villages. Many of these serve no purpose at all, closing months after they appear, often in bizarre locations between Arabic villages.Fortunately there is Machsom watch, a group of Israeli women dedicated to challenging checkpoints and land seizures. We spent a day travelling the area with them to see how these restrictions affect the population.
*********It’s now 2pm and schools have closed for the day. A young boy waits while Israeli soldiers finish a lunch of hummus and olives. Eventually one of the men gets up long enough to wave him through, before returning to his lounge chair in the shade. Four Palestinian men sit on the street beside them, one is handcuffed and the others, his friends, are waiting for him to be released. It’s not the same man arrested before, who was released after Dalya called the soldier’s superiors to complain. This prisoner has been detained for attempting to reach his family in a neighbouring village.
To read whole report on QalQilya, go here: http://palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1103
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