Memorandum submitted by MachsomWatch
1. OBJECTIVE
Machsom is Hebrew for "barrier" or "checkpoint." MachsomWatch is a voluntary organisation founded in January 2001 (shortly after the outbreak of the Second Intifada), by three Israeli women in response to recurring reports of abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers at military checkpoints. Made up solely of women, who now number 300, all Israelis, most of whom have never previously been involved in human rights activism -- the goals of MachsomWatch are to protect Palestinians' human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and to end the Occupation. The immediate objectives are to monitor Palestinian freedom of movement and soldiers' behaviour at military checkpoints, to safeguard Palestinian human rights and to document and emphasise the deleterious effect of the Occupation on the future of Israeli society. By maintaining a constant presence at West Bank checkpoints, MachsomWatch helps Palestinians see that their humanity is shared with a group of committed Israeli women and endeavours to show the Israeli public the damage the Occupation does to the overall society.
2. TARGET GROUPS
The primary target group of MachsomWatch activity in the OPT is the thousands of Palestinians whose daily lives are impeded by checkpoints, by unpredictable army orders, by the bureaucratic structure of the army's District Coordinating Office (DCO) and by the construction of the separation barrier between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. A second target group is the citizens of Israel. The women of MachsomWatch are aware of the need for their fellow citizens to see what really goes on so close to their own homes. The group of women, from different backgrounds, but all equally committed to human rights, observe, report and document violations of such rights in the OPT, attempt to prevent violations, and to intervene in cases of gross breach. Working on behalf of Palestinian freedom of movement within their own territories, they are showing a different, peace-seeking Israeli "face" to the Palestinians. To Israeli society, the women demonstrate a unique and original bent to promoting the rights of "others," bringing home to their own, democratic Israeli society, the horrors of occupation. MachsomWatchers prompt the soldiers posted at checkpoints to remember that the "other" is human too, and that universal principles of human rights have to be observed. The women's work towards "ending the Occupation and the checkpoints" has relevance both for the future of Palestinian society and for the amelioration of the far-reaching and corrosive impact of the Occupation on Israeli society.
3. BACKGROUND
For the past seven years, MachsomWatch women have willingly placed themselves in the volatile military zones of the OPT and have almost certainly reduced the aggressive behaviour of soldiers at checkpoints. Many of the women are not only the age of the mothers, or even grandmothers, of the soldiers, but sometimes are in fact mothers or grandmothers of young men and women in service, and determined to instill in their children the lessons of respect for "the other." Other women are mothers or grandmothers of young men and women in jail for refusing to serve in the army, particularly in the OPT! The women are opposed to the very presence of checkpoints, and to the occupation of Palestinian territory. Their presence at checkpoints, as agents of peace, has unquestionably had a profound effect on both Palestinian and Israeli society. The women are another face of Israel, for the Palestinians, who otherwise see only settlers and soldiers. The inherent dignity of every human being is first and foremost in the minds and actions of MachsomWatch women in their approach to soldiers and Palestinians. In seeking to alleviate the Palestinian suffering, they also inform the Israeli public about the brutality of the military rule.
4. WHAT WE DO
4.1 Checkpoint Monitoring Each day: two shifts - morning and afternoon - go to some 30 checkpoints, most within the West Bank, some on the seam line between Israel and Palestine. Each shift files a report which is posted on MachsomWatch's web page in Hebrew and English (all activities - monitoring, documenting, translating, editing and reporting daily after each shift; weekly and monthly digests; web-site design and maintenance; scheduling, fundraising, and administrative work - are carried out by the members on a volunteer basis; there is no MachsomWatch office, just an official address).
4.2 Reporting and Disseminating Information: One group of volunteers uploads daily (3000 per year, or ten a day), weekly and monthly reports for each checkpoint on the internet site: www.MachsomWatch.org. Another team summarises monthly digests which are translated and circulated in approximately 230 copies (100 e-mail list and 130 fax); 200 copies of a weekly digest are translated and mailed in English. The monthly digests are circulated to senior Israeli army officers, Knesset members, Supreme Court justices, the State Comptroller, journalists, other human rights organisations, and posted on the web site.
4.3 A team of MachsomWatch women writing letters of complaint to the military authorities, usually about events witnessed at checkpoints. Partly because these letters, in the hundreds, are rarely acknowledged or replied to, it has become more usual recently to write directly to the Minister of Defense with copies to Knesset members.
4.4 Emanating from checkpoint monitoring, an MachsomWatch team focuses on Menuei Shabak -- Palestinians blacklisted by the General Security Service - of whom there are 180,000, who very often do not know why they are on the blacklist. This blacklisting prevents passage at any checkpoint, thereby confining the Palestinian subject to his own village or home. Nearly 2000 letters of complaint were submitted in the recent year, appealing against denial of a variety of transit and work permits, and requesting removal of people from the "blacklist." The rate of success was about 25%, although 35% of the cases were, in fact, handled by the authorities.
4.5 Another team deals with complaints to the various police authorities about "lost" and confiscated identity documents and passes, and lack of service received by Palestinians. Until July 2007, police stations where Palestinians were to pay traffic and other fines were inaccessible due to their location behind the Green Line (frontier between Israel and Palestine). Perhaps because of MachsomWatch stressing this "catch-22" situation, police payments service is now supposedly given in the DCO offices of the Civil Administration - though the police are often not there at the specified times!
4.6 Protest letters are also sent concerning farmers who live behind the separation barrier, whose lands are now "trapped" between the Green Line and the Seam Line separation barrier. These letters of complaint include lists of people denied permits to work their land (individual appeals are also sent). Such letters are directed to the Head of the Civil Administration and the Legal Advisor of the West Bank, and copied to Ministry of Defense officials, the Legal Adviser to the government, the State Comptroller, human rights organisations, Knesset members, etc.
4.7 Besides observing at checkpoints, a team of women also observe in the military courts, document their observations in the same way as checkpoint monitoring. Written reports of each shift are translated from Hebrew to English and vice versa and posted on the MachsomWatch newly revised and upgraded Internet site, www.MachsomWatch.org.
4.8 Still photography and videos are also used as documentation and posted on the Internet. A monthly bulletin, called "MachsomWatch Alerts" summarises and highlights monthly activities and is distributed widely in Israel and abroad
5. CONCLUSIONS from 2007-2008
5.1 Restriction of freedom of movement (with its effect on employment, education, health, social services and family visits) continues to be the main problem for Palestinians in the West Bank OPT. Events like Annapolis or the Paris donor conference have no impact at all on facts on the ground. In October 2007, the UN OCHA agency reported a total of 561 barriers or obstructions (an increase from 528 in November 2006), over 30 permanent military checkpoints, plus innumerable trenches, physical obstacles, earth mounds and "rolling" or temporary road blocks. Yet, throughout the recent year, numerous promises (mostly to the United States government) were made to reduce the number of fixed physical barriers placed by the army to control and restrict pedestrian and vehicular traffic and regulate movement between towns and villages. None of these promises were kept.
5.2 The "overlordship" of the OPT is further exacerbated by an endless number of unpredictable, ever changing army orders, the bureaucratic structure of the army's DCO, the continuing construction of the separation barrier and the persistent violence of Israeli settlers, inevitably free of police or military intervention. Daily life for Palestinians becomes ever more problematic. MachsomWatch human rights lawyers' services are much in demand to help in issues encountered by individual women at the checkpoints or in crossing the West Bank. MachsomWatch women are more and more questioned about standing at checkpoints or told where they may stand (often in on the spot rulings made by a soldier, though army higher ups and legal counsel insist that there may be no such restrictions).
5.3 Most of the Israeli public clearly wishes to remain in the dark about the day to day trials and tribulations of Palestinians desirous of nothing more than going about their lives. MachsomWatch will continue to try to shape Israeli public opinion, and influence decision-makers.
March 2008
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