Machsom (checkpoint) Watch
said that the soldiers at the Tayaseer checkpoint, to the southeast of Jenin,
bared the Palestinians from crossing for two hours under security pretexts.
Dafna Banai, of Machsom
Watch, said that the Tayaseer checkpoint "is located in an isolated area,
and is therefore not frequented by human rights organizations."
Banai added that
"three weeks ago the soldiers were replaced and since then there have been
many delays... Apparently there have been orders from above to make the checks
more severe, for an unknown reason. At the end of the day the lines here are
huge. Not a day passes without someone calling me to say they waited for
hours."
She added that the Israeli
soldiers ordered teams of her organization to stand at least 100 meters away so
as not to document the violations. She added that the Israeli police arrived at
the checkpoint and arrested three Machsom Watch activists for questioning.
"It was not the first
time soldiers used this method to make us leave," Banai said. "In
recent weeks they have closed the checkpoint a number of times when we arrived.
Closing it without security reasons is entirely illegal."
The
Israeli Army said in response that the three were arrested after they were
interfering with the operation of the checkpoint. "Therefore there was no
escaping the halting of the security checks and closing the checkpoint
down," the army said.
