Quotes of the Day

An Israeli radio channel reported this week that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Ministry of Defense have decided to set a new code of behavior — a strict and clear one — for the soldiers serving on the roadblocks in the Occupied Territories. That new code, explained an IDF brigadier general who was in charge of its phrasing, was devised, together with other new measures, to relieve the hardships forced on the Palestinians in those roadblocks. But I wonder if this will really change the unbearable reality of the roadblocks.

On a cold Sunday, a couple of weeks ago, I joined a tour organized by the Knesset's "Roadblocks Team," a group of 20 MKs who had taken it upon themselves to inspect the IDF's roadblocks in the West Bank. The group aims, among other things, to raise the Israeli public's awareness about the nature of these roadblocks. It was a tense Sunday: a suicide-bomber had that morning blown himself up on a bus in Jerusalem, killing eight civilians. Israeli intelligence warned of dozens of other terror attacks. The MKs who represented the Team on this tour — Muhammad Zehalka of the Arab party Balad, Roman Bronfman of the leftwing Meretz and Collette Avital from the center-left Labour party — had invited the Israeli and foreign press to join them. But the attack in Jerusalem, which obviously drew most of the media's attention, caused some major cancellations. TV crews from the main three Hebrew channels failed to arrive, as did many other journalists from the Hebrew media. By the time the bulletproofed bus left the Knesset building in Jerusalem on its way to the West Bank, it was clear that the tour, and the issue of the checkpoints, would end up on the margins of the day's news broadcasts, if it featured at all.

The bus took us deep into the West Bank, towards Nablus. I remember visiting there at the beginning of 2000, in the heyday of the Oslo Accords. Then, I had felt like a tourist, enjoying a day-trip in a foreign land, only an hour's drive from Tel Aviv. This tour couldn't have been more different. The roads, opened only to settlers, army personnel and Palestinians with special permits, were empty. The entrances to Palestinian villages were blocked with boulders, an IDF tactic to prevent villagers from even trying to get to the main roads. We stopped at two manned checkpoints, where the soldiers checked the documents of every Palestinian trying to get through. Passage was by foot (except for car owners with special permits from the army). Yellow Palestinian taxis were waiting on the other side, ready to drive those who managed to pass the checks to their destinations. In many cases they could only drive as far as the next checkpoint, from where the passengers would have to hire another taxi.

The MKs spoke to the soldiers, asked them about regulations, and in more than one case demanded to speak to a superior officer. They wanted to know why the few young Palestinians who were asked to wait aside until their details could be thoroughly checked in coordination with the Shin Bet (the Israeli secret services), had to stand in the cold for over four hours. They insisted that a shy young man who said he was coming from kidney treatment in hospital should be allowed to go back to his village. They told the reporters who did accompany them — most of them from the Russian media — that they had no objection to checkpoints between Israel and the Occupied Territories. But roadblocks set in the heart of the West Bank and Gaza, such as the ones we were visiting, could have only two purposes: securing the settlements, and enforcing collective punishment on the Palestinians.

At the Havarah checkpoint, on a junction leading from Ramallah to Nablus, I asked a young Israeli radio reporter who regularly covers the West Bank if the description we had got from the MKs, about the injustice done to the Palestinians in the roadblocks, reflects the real picture of daily life there. Yes, he said, but added that at this very checkpoint, "every week a terrorist is being caught and explosives are found".

When I arrived at home that evening, a friend called to ask how my day had gone. I told him about the tour. "You should have cancelled it," he said, dryly, "because of the Jerusalem attack". Why, I asked. "I won't be dragged now into a political argument," he sighed, "I'm too tired of it". I could only wonder: Aren't we all?

But when I heard about the new IDF code, I called Avital to ask what she thought of it. "It's a progressive act," she said, "I'm pleased that the IDF have finally realized that our claims were right. But this is not enough. The internal roadblocks in the Territories are unnecessary and destructive. If Israel wants to protect itself, it would better to invest more in guarding its own borders, instead of restricting the Palestinians' movement between their own villages".

• MICHAL LEVERTOV
• An eye-opening tour of Israel's roadblocks in Palestinian territory