5 year olds are terrorists too. West Bank

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Wednesday October 29, 2003 11:28

by Aron Baker

baker_aron at hotmail dot com

Balatta Refugee camp, Nablus, West Bank

087 2895036

Soldier threatens to shoot 5 year old at checkpoint.

Yesterday I watched as an Israeli soldier pointed his gun at 5 year old Ahmed and shouted to him and Zeiad, his father, he was going to shoot Ahmed. We were queueing to get through Huwwara checkpoint and home to Nablus. Zeiad and his son live in Askar refugee camp, 10 minutes in a car from Balatta. Ahmed is 85% deaf and they had been to Ramallah to see about modifying his old hearing aids which whine constantly, he cannot afford better aids which are available as they cost in the region of $10,000.There were about 60 people waiting to get in to Nablus, which today meant a wait of over an hour, but was good by average standards here. As we waited, I watched as Ahmed left his fathers side, walking up before his turn to be evaluated by the Israeli boy with the M16. As Zeiad moved from his place in the queue to retrieve his son, unable to hear anybody speaking to him, and unable as yet to speak or communicate much, the soldier thrust his gun at Ahmed and started shouting at him. The soldier shouted he was going to shoot him. I struggled from my place in the queue to see what was going on, as Zeiad with his arms out stopped a few feet in front of the queue, unsure what to do, he is a big man, and to continue forward to retrieve his son may be enough to enrage the soldier into firing. People in the queue around me take little interest, their involvement in the situation will probably only make matters worse, as well as singling them out for potential punishments, and usually the soldiers don’t shoot small children, at least not on checkpoints. Finally Ahmed, now frightened in his largely silent world turns and returns to his father. Zeiad briefly tries to turn the situation to his advantage by offering his ID for inspection, hoping he will be allowed to pass, but is ordered back. He does not risk provoking the situation further and returns to the queue, moving further back in the queue afraid to approach again too soon, possibly thinking it better to allow the soldier to calm down before reapproaching.
The day before, as I entered Nablus by the same checkpoint, I watched as a soldier pushed and shoved people out of the outgoing queue, shoving them off the narrow queue path and down a 6-8 foot or 2 m slope, strewn with rubbish and dangerous rocks. The soldier seemed to take great pride in his important work, and once thrown out of the queue it seemed they were being detained, I think for the crime of edging forward to far in the queue. About 15-20 men waited amongst the rubbish, squatting or standing, some perhaps feeling weak as they observe the Muslim fast of Ramadan and so don’t eat, drink (including water) or smoke during daylight hours. About 200 people wait on this side as the soldiers exercise their power over the situation as opposed to checking IDs and allowing people to get on with their lives.
I had been returning from Ramallah, where to travel the 35-40 km can be a huge challenge in itself. I passed through at least 5 checkpoints, a fixed checkpoint at Ramallah, which took about ¾ hour to pass through, 3 roving checkpoints some detaining us for various periods of time, and Huwwara checkpoint taking 1 hour to get through. So a journey which should take 30-40 minutes took 3 ½ hours and 4 different taxis and often takes a lot longer or isn’t possible at all.