A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Friday, July 13, 2018
Gunpoint at the checkpoint
Israeli soldiers staff a checkpoint in the Bethlehem area.
Ryan Rodrick BeilerActiveStills
Israel’s military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank regularly cause
nightmares for Palestinians. They prevent us from traveling freely from
one town to another, commuting to work or school, accessing medical
services and visiting relatives.
Some of these checkpoints were established approximately two decades ago
in a failed attempt by the colonizing power to normalize oppression.
One of these is the notorious Container checkpoint in the Bethlehem
area.
On 23 June, I had a frightening encounter with Israeli forces at this checkpoint.
That evening I was among seven passengers in a shared taxi traveling
from Ramallah to Bethlehem. The taxi had to slow down as we approached
the checkpoint – which includes a concrete watchtower.
There was a long line of vehicles ahead of us, moving very slowly. The
message sent out was clear: we should expect to be delayed.
The passengers in our taxi chatted about news reports they had seen. According to those reports, a Palestinian had been shot at the checkpoint that morning.
Our driver, as it happened, could confirm that the reports were true.
He had been at the checkpoint earlier in the day and had seen the man,
34-year-old Maher Jaradat, lying on the ground after being shot. Our
driver pointed to the spot where Jaradat had lain.
Israeli soldiers prevented a Palestinian ambulance from reaching the wounded man, our driver added.
Jaradat had been bleeding on the sidewalk for more than an hour before
an Israeli military ambulance reached him. When the ambulance arrived,
Jaradat was arrested.
Our driver told us the man had been shot in the leg while walking
towards the soldiers at the checkpoint. Palestinians are not allowed to
cross the Container checkpoint by foot; only in vehicles.
Other accounts indicate that Jaradat was shot for arguing with soldiers or attempting to stab one of them.
After the shooting, the checkpoint was shut down. Hundreds of vehicles
had to wait on either side of it before it was reopened in the
afternoon.
Painful memory
Around 9 p.m., it was our turn to cross the checkpoint.
I was sitting in the front seat beside the driver. In the dim light we
approached a number of heavily armed soldiers. They were surrounded by
concrete blocks and cabins.
As we came closer to the soldiers, we suddenly realized that one of them was pointing his assault rifle directly at us.
I felt like I was unable to breathe.
A painful memory came back to me. I recalled the time I was shot in the leg by an Israeli sniper. That shooting occurred in Bethlehem during December 2015.
With his assault rifle pointed at our faces, the soldier ordered us to
pull into the right lane. He seemed to be instructing the drivers of all
Palestinian-owned vehicles – with green license plates – to pull over
into the right lane, so they could be inspected.
Israeli-owned cars – bearing yellow license plates – were, by contrast, allowed to pass through without being checked.
All the passengers in our taxi went silent and the driver rolled down
his window. Terrified, I lifted both my hands to express confusion. The
soldier kept his gun pointed at us.
“What is wrong?” I asked, as calmly as I could.
“You,” the soldier replied. “You are wrong, you are dangerous, this car is dangerous. And all of you are dangerous.”
“But you are the one holding a gun,” I said. “Not us.”
Hate and anger
At that moment all I could think of was the man who had been shot at the checkpoint earlier that day.
The young soldier pointing the gun at us seemed to only hear his own
voice. It seemed as if he was unaccustomed to hearing the voices of
Palestinians, that he was unfamiliar with having his actions questioned
by the people he oppressed.
His eyes and voice were saturated with hate and anger.
He demanded the IDs of all the passengers in our taxi, then handed them
to another soldier while he moved to scrutinize the next vehicle. The
female soldier holding our documents dictated our ID numbers to another
soldier sitting inside a cabin and looking at a computer screen.
I immediately thought of Israel’s “wanted list,” which includes huge
numbers of Palestinians linked directly or indirectly to resistance
activities.
Among those considered as “wanted” are former political prisoners and
their relatives, the relatives of people killed by Israel and people who
participate in protests. Everyone on the list is at risk of being
arrested or subjected to movement restrictions.
None of us in the taxi was on the “wanted list.” Our IDs were returned to us and we were allowed through the checkpoint.
As we traveled on, I thought about the man who had been shot that
morning. It is possible that the soldier who pulled the trigger was
questioned by someone of higher rank. Yet the soldier is unlikely to
face any serious penalty. It was evident from the way the troops we
encountered behaved that they feel superior to us, that they think we
must be controlled.
We all remained silent until we reached Bethlehem.
Traveling from Ramallah to Bethlehem used to take me half an hour. That
was before the Israeli occupation shut down the road originally
connecting the two cities and before Israel built its massive apartheid
wall in the West Bank.
My journey that evening took three hours.
Israel steals our land and water. And our time.
Rehab Nazzal is a Palestinian-Canadian artist, currently living in
Bethlehem and teaching at Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts and
Culture.