JERUSALEM, 17 December 2007 — One in four of Israeli troops serving at the hundreds of checkpoints across the occupied West Bank have engaged in or witnessed abuse of Palestinians, an army-commissioned survey said yesterday. Twenty-five percent of respondents said they had either taken part in, seen or heard about from colleagues about acts that included either physical or verbal abuse at the more than 500 roadblocks dotting the territory, said the report quoted by army officials and media.
The abuse includes humiliations, gratuitous delays and bribe taking. One soldier reported forcing a Palestinian truck driver to remain on his knees for four hours for lying that he had a permit to cross the roadblock. “We knew there was a problem, but we never imagined it was this grave,” one senior military officer was quoted as saying by the Yediot Aharonot daily.
The survey — which questioned 1,000 soldiers with participants assured their identities would not be revealed — was commissioned several months ago by the commander of Israel’s central command, an army spokesman told AFP.
As a result of the findings, all soldiers serving in the territories are to attend a two-day workshop. “We are making an effort so that the soldiers behave themselves better,” a military source said. Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank have mushroomed in the aftermath of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000 as the military upped a crackdown on militants.
The roadblocks, often manned by 18- to 21-year-old conscripts, today dot the territory, severely hampering Palestinian freedom of movement, feeding local resentment and stirring widespread international criticism. “When you prevent thousands of people from moving freely, that’s something that can’t be done nicely,” the Yediot quoted one soldier as saying.
“What can you do, you can’t expect the Palestinian citizen to say thank you for what you’re doing to him,” he said. “Sometimes he tries to bypass you because that’s what saves him his day of work — and then you catch him. What are you going to do to him? You’re going to punish him,” said the soldier.
A group of Israeli reservists said it has collected testimonies from more than 500 former soldiers who have attested to abuse at checkpoints. “For us, the problem is with the checkpoints and not the behavior,” said Mikhael Manekin, director of Breaking the Silence. “Checkpoints breed abuse — that is an axiom.” The issue of the roadblocks has come to the fore in recent days because easing the restrictions on Palestinian movement is seen as key to the success of an ambitious international effort to revive the Palestinian economy.
The Palestinians will ask donor countries today to pledge $5.6 billion at a conference in Paris. But the World Bank and other agencies have warned that unless Israel removes some of the obstacles to Palestinian travel and trade, donor countries might be wasting their money.
Mohammed Mar’i adds from Ramallah:
Israeli forces operating in West Bank city of Nablus detained more than 24 Hamas members early yesterday, including a Hamas member of Palestinian Legislative Council, the movement said. Hamas lawmaker, Ahmed Al-Hajj, and Hamas representative in Nablus, Ahmed Doula, were among the detainees, Hamas said in a press statement.
The Israeli forces also arrested two members of Nablus’ municipal council members, Anan Ghazal, Abduljabbar Dweikat and their sons. Hamas added that several affiliated-lecturers at An-Najah National University in the city were arrested, including dean of Islamic law, Dr. Khadir Sawandak.
