Jewish grandmothers patrol West Bank checkpoints

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Hanna Barag remembers the day an Israeli soldier called her a Palestinian whore. She was 67 and had just joined Machsomwatch, an all-woman group set up to curb human rights abuses at military checkpoints in the West Bank.

"It was at the Qalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah," Barag said, "and the remark at first struck me speechless. But then I asked him two questions: 'Do you really think a woman my age has a chance at that profession? And would you say what you said to me to your grandmother?'"

The soldier said nothing but was embarrassed, and when Barag, who was born in Israel and describes herself as a Zionist, returned for another "shift" of watchdog duty a week later, the soldier was there -- and apologised.

That was in the early days of Machsomwatch, set up in 2001 by three Israeli women who were alarmed by a spate of reports of beatings and abuse of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli soldiers manning checkpoints."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L09689978.htm

[breakaleg]

1. Can we accept the fact that these are not for security purposes now?

--snip--
"The idea is to make life so unpleasant and so uncomfortable for them that they just give up and leave, emigrate to an Arab country, to Canada, wherever they can go," said Nomi Lalo, another veteran of Machsomwatch.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[breakaleg]

5. Did you read my post or the article?

This statement is from and Israeli observer at the checkpoints. Enough said.

[Englander]

6. The locations of the checkpoints makes that pretty clear;

"The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem says there are 528 permanent and temporary checkpoints in the West Bank, 40 percent more than a year ago.

Most are not between the West Bank and Israel but between West Bank towns and villages, a fact that makes anti-occupation Israelis and Palestinians doubt the Israeli government's contention that their primary purpose is security.

[iamjoy]

2. Hooray For These Women!

these "grandmothers" embody the true spirit of Judaism. Those who would torment the Palestinians should be ashamed.

Maybe this should be a new form of border security, teams of Palestinian and Israeli (Muslim and Jewish) grandmothers working together. If some Palestinian youth is trying to smuggle weapons, bombs, etc. the Palestinian grandmother should knock him upside the head. If some Israeli soldiers start to hassle an innocent Palestinian kid, the Israeli mother should slap some sense into him.

I'm being a little tongue in cheek with that last paragraph. Of course I realize it is a serious issue.

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. here is the website for Machsom Watch

link:

http://www.machsomwatch.org/eng/homePageEng.asp?link=homePage&lang=eng