Qalandia and Al Quds (Jerusalem)

April 29, 2010

Qalandia and Al Quds (Jerusalem)

Last Sunday I set off for Al Quds – had been wanting to visit the office of PCATI (Public Committee Against Torture in Israel), as well as to go to the OCHA office to pick up current maps of the West Bank, spend some time with my good friend Roni, purchase Arabic language books (Jerusalem dialect), and post some things home. As some of you know, taking anything that connects one to Palestine through the airport in Tel Aviv is basically asking for problems.

The Israelis are notorious for pulling people over for grilling and strip searching at the airport (as happened with my good friend Hedy Epstein, who is Jewish and a Holocaust survivor. She was 80 when she had her first experience with the Israeli airport security. She was attempting to return to the US – they pulled her from the line, said she was a terrorist and not only strip searched her, but cavity searched her as well).

In 2004, the first time I worked with ISM, I spent my last night before returning home with Talila, a friend from New Profile. She went through all my luggage with me, laying aside anything that had Arabic writing or would in any way suggest that I had been in the West Bank. I had purchased olive oil that had Arabic writing on the container – that was transferred into bottles with Hebrew writing. We even tore labels from clothing I had purchased in Palestine because they had Arabic writing on them. All this from a country that calls itself “democratic.”

From Ramallah I took a service to Al Quds. At the Qalandia checkpoint I got off the bus to walk through the checkpoint with the Palestinians (internationals don’t have to disembark, but since Palestinians do, it is a show of solidarity to stand with them). Before going through the checkpoint I was greeted by Wadzhi, a young man who regularly sells coffee there from a makeshift cart. 

Wadzhi

 I had met him a few weeks earlier when I accompanied my friend Roni and two other Machsom (Checkpoint) Watch women on their shift at Qalandia. I learned from Roni that the young man had recently purchased a brand new cart from which to sell his coffee, only to have it completely destroyed by Israeli soldiers – no reason – only to make his life harder – because they have the power to do so – because there is no accountability.

After drinking a cup of coffee, I got in the queue to pass through the checkpoint – one person at a time is allowed through the revolving bars and the process is more often than not painstakingly slow, especially in the morning when people are attempting to get to work – imagine rush hour (hundreds of people) and having to get out of your car/bus, queue up and wait to pass through (with no guarantee that you will be allowed to do so).

Qalandia Checkpoint

When it came to be my turn to pass through the bars, the soldiers got up and walked to the other side of the room, leaving me, and about 25 Palestinians, waiting. For 20 minutes they talked and laughed and joked with the soldiers on the other side of the room while we stood waiting – because they can. And the Palestinians behind me noted this very thing as well. Hubris!!! Arrogance!! Impudence!!!! From the “most moral army in the world.” HAH!!!

Finally I was allowed to pass and I got back onto the bus and headed to Al Quds. I was already an hour late for my appointment with Louis Frankenthaler, Director of Development and International Outreach for PCATI. I grabbed a taxi at the Damascus Gate and found that the PCATI office was a good 30 minutes away – much further than I had anticipated. I had a wonderful taxi driver who, when he dropped me off, consented to return and pick me up to go back to the Old City.

The meeting with Louis and his colleagues, Connie, Ishai, and Bana, was particularly informative and enlightening. Louis is an American Jew who made Aliyah a number of years ago, only to have his eyes opened wide to the horrors of the occupation while he was in the military.

 

               Louis Frankenthaler

The PCATI office was replete with published reports, DVDs, and brochures in three languages: English, Hebrew, and Arabic. I was generously supplied with a copy of everything. Louis told me about one of their recent successes, the passage of new rules relating to painful handcuffing. The new rules require the military to connect the plastic handcuffs on each hand with a third connecting them; there also must be one finger space between the wrist and the cuff. I’m attaching the text of the order at the end. In the past the military has cuffed the hands very tightly and often behind the back which adds an extra stress on the body. Interestingly, all the ISMers that I spoke to who have recently been arrested knew nothing about this new ruling and indicated that the military is not adhering to it.

DRAFT UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION OF ORIGNIAL HEBREW

The Israeli Defence Forces
The Judea and Samaria Region
The Bureau of the Legal Advisor
PO Box 5, Beit El 09631
Tel: 02-9977071/711 Fax: 02-9977326 23

March 2010

Dear Sir/Mrs, Lawyer Samah Al-Khatib-Ayub
“Public Committee against Torture in Israel”
PO Box 4634 Jerusalem 91046
Fax 02-6432847
The issue: Claim regarding painful handcuffing of arrestees in the legal custody of the Israeli Defence Forces. Our reference: 700626 on 24.08.09 Your reference: 10661/x on 17.11.09

1. We hereby confirm to have received your inquiry of 17.11.09 where you asked to obtain a copy of the procedure that was decided upon in relation to the issue under discussion. In the following, we wish to briefly refer to the said approach. Firstly, we wish to apologize for the time which passed since we received your inquiry and until this answer.

2. As we mentioned in our reference above (August 24, 2009), an extensive work was carried out by staff of the Central Command, including medical and operational personnel, for the sake of checking the claim concerning medical injuries which are likely to be caused to arrestees as a result of handcuffing by use of plastic handcuffs.

3. As stated, within the framework of this staff job it was found that, in general, from a medical and operational point of view, the use of iron handcuffs is not preferable to the use of plastic handcuffs. Within this setting it was found that the point in issue here is the degree to which the handcuffs are tightened around the wrist of the arrestee, and not the type of handcuffs being used. In accordance with that, the procedure for, among other things, handcuffing arrestees was set.

4. We cannot hand over a copy of the procedure, the content is confidential because of its whole content and because it refers to some operational procedures. Despite this, we can mention from this procedure that it was decided that in general, when handcuffing someone, plastic handcuffs should be used, and both hands of the prisoner should be in front of the prisoner. In those circumstances where the operational needs require it, it will be allowed to cuff the hands of the prisoner also behind the back and also by use of iron handcuffs. This procedure determines the way to handcuff by use of plastic handcuffs. It was determined that the handcuffs should in general consist of three parts (one plastic handcuff on each hand and one more handcuff that links the two others), and it was determined, as an obligation, to leave a medically appropriate and sufficient space between the handcuff and the wrist of the arrestee (“finger space”). Furthermore, the obligation to keep and protect the arrestee’s dignity and health, the obligation to ban any medical harm as a result of the handcuffing, and the obligation of the commander of the force to make sure, from time to time, that the handcuffs are not tightened too much, was sharpened.

5. As mentioned, the instructions pertaining to this issue have been transmitted to the forces deployed on the ground.

Best Regards,
Yael Bar Yosef

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