In the Twilight Zone: Sadism at the Qalandiyah Checkpoint

Irja. The time has come for all of us to become familiar with this word. There is no checkpoint soldier who doesn't know it, there is no Palestinian who hasn't heard it. "Irja!" roars the soldier at the person whom he is preventing from crossing the checkpoint--i.e., go back, get out of here. "Irja" to the man carrying the injured child, who wants to bring him home. "Irja" to the construction engineer who wants to get to work. "Irja" to the mother carrying her baby on the way to visiting her parents. "Irja" to the old man who wants to visit his grandchildren.

The theater of the absurd of the occupation is giving rise to a new scene, reminiscent of an older one. Last Thursday, Yosef Abu-A'adi, 29, stabbed and killed soldier Nir Kahana at the Qalandiyah checkpoint. The checkpoint was closed immediately, and for the past week, hundreds of thousands of P! alestinians have been unable to cross it. Qalandiyah, we should mention here, is a "mega-checkpoint" in the territories, not between the territories and Israel. The cruel collective punishment that was ordered last week--there's no other way to describe it--condemns tens of thousands of innocent people, who are already in a bad way, to many more days of harassment.

Is the checkpoint closed? Not really. It can be crossed. Not by walking a few hundred meters, as usual, but via a very costly and prolonged ride in a taxi--50 kilometers and an hour and a half in each direction--to bypass the closed checkpoint, involving a trip almost all over the West Bank. You drive north, in order to drive south for a few hundred meters, until you reach the other side of the checkpoint. Is this not collective punishment?

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