Checkpoints

One aspect of life for the past 18 months for Palestinians is how Israeli government blockades and checkpoints disrupt everyday activity.

This is from the B’Tselem draft report, Trigger Happy, Unjustified Shooting and Violations of the Open-Fire Regulations during the al-Aqsa intifada, March 2002.

(AP Photo) Nov 2000 - Palestinians held at gunpoint at army checkpoint.

Death of Mo’in Subhi Sa’id Abu Lawi, 38, resident of a-Diq

Testimony of ‘Issam Yusef Mahmud ‘Ali Ahmad, 41, married with six children, official in the Palestinian Authority’s Salfit office of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, resident of a-Diq

My job at the Ministry of Religious Affairs is around twenty-five kilometers from my home. When the al-Aqsa intifada broke out, the Israelis blocked the main road to Salfit, so I have to drive via a dirt road to get to work. In the past, the trip along the main road took twenty minutes, but now it takes an hour and a half. Also, since the intifada began, I only go to Nablus, which I need to do for my work, in urgent cases because it takes three hours to drive from Salfit to Nablus, provided it is possible to go via Burin. If that road is closed, we have to go via the Jordan Valley road (Jaftlik Road) and the trip can take more than four hours.

On Sunday [19 August], I wanted to take two of my children to Nablus for eye examinations. We left our house at 7:30 A.M. I drove to my office in Salfit to get permission to take the day off. We reached Salfit at 8:15, and, after taking care of the matter at the office, we went to the taxi stand to get a taxi to Nablus. I did not want to go in my car because the road is in bad condition and is often blocked, so people wanting to go to Nablus often have to cross the checkpoints on foot and then get into other cars.

We got into the taxi and sat in the back seat. Three passengers were sitting in the middle seat. One of them was Mo’in Abu Lawi. I had never met him before. He told me that he, too, was born in a-Diq, but moved to Salfit after he got married.

When we got to the Hawareh checkpoint, we had to wait for an hour and a half until the soldiers checked our identity cards and searched the taxi thoroughly. They told us that the road was blocked and that the area had been declared a closed military area, so we would have to turn around. The driver turned the taxi around and went onto a dirt road that bypasses the Hawareh checkpoint and leads to Burin. At 10:40, we reached the dirt roadblock near Burin. At that point, we got out because the taxi could not continue.

Whoever wants to continue to Nablus walks to a dirt roadblock about three kilometers along the road, where taxis wait to take passengers to Nablus. An army encampment lies three hundred meters to the left of the road. The encampment has several tents, a tower, and armored personnel carriers. The travelers have to climb a hill on the right side of the road, while trying to stay out of the soldiers’ view so as not to get shot. People have been shot going over the hill.

My children, Mo’in, the other passengers in the taxi, and I began to climb the hill. I walked alongside Mo’in, and we talked on the way. He told me that he was going to Nablus to buy merchandise for his shop and to replace some defective merchandise. He was carrying the defective goods in two pink sacks. After walking for about thirty minutes, we reached the top of the hill and a path leading directly to the second dirt roadblock. Mo’in told me that he was in a hurry and was going to walk faster than the rest of us. I told him to be careful and make sure that the soldiers didn’t see him.

He rushed off. After a few meters, he jumped over a stone wall that was about a meter and a half high. I looked behind us at a donkey that was carrying items belonging to an elderly woman who had trouble walking. Suddenly, I heard a loud volley of bullets. I looked in front and then my daughter, who was shaken, said that the man who was walking in front of us was lying on the ground and bleeding badly. Mo’in was lying around three meters from me, and I saw blood gushing from his neck. He did not move. I think he died immediately. I wanted to go to him, but three soldiers appeared. Their faces were painted and they had on uniforms and helmets. They were six meters away from us. They aimed their weapons at me and threatened, in Arabic, that if I went over to him, they would shoot me. I still wanted to go to Mo’in to see how he was. The soldiers threw a pressure grenade at us. We ran toward the nearby village, ‘Iraq-Burin. Before fleeing, I saw one of the soldiers kick Mo’in, who was lying on the ground, all over his body and yell at him, “Get up, dog.”

When we got to the village, we told the residents what had happened. They called the Red Crescent for an ambulance. A journalist who was there to cover a shooting that had occurred earlier that day ran to the scene of the incident. I continued to the dirt roadblock and then [by taxi] to Nablus. When I reached Nablus, around 1:00, I learned that Mo’in had died from the shooting, and that residents from the village had taken his body to the dirt roadblock. From there, an ambulance took him to the hospital in Nablus.

Somebody told me that, two hours before Mo’in was killed, soldiers had shot two people in the same area, striking one in the ear and the other in the midsection.

I should mention that Mo’in did not make any suspicious movement, and the soldiers had no reason to shoot him. He died holding the two sacks of defective goods that he wanted to exchange in Nablus.

Testimony given to Raslan Mahagna on 21 August 2001.