Tag: strip search

Residents of Tel Rumeida participate in two sit-ins at checkpoints to demonstrate against increased harrassment in the area

23rd June 2018 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Khalil Team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

On Thursday the 21st of June, a group of around a hundred Palestinian residents of Tel Rumeida gathered at the checkpoint outside of the Jabal Al Rahma mosque to protest against the constant delays, harassment and humiliation that happen in the area. A large amount of the protesters were young children and women, sitting peacefully by the checkpoint.

Residents of Tel Rumeida begin to gather at the Jabal Al Rahma mosque checkpoint on Thursday evening (photo: ISM)

The demonstration was prompted by a recent increase in strip searches carried out by Israeli forces on Palestinian citizens in the checkpoints of Tel Rumeida, which is in the H2 area of the city and so under strict Israeli control. Imad Abu Shamsiya, a resident of Tel Rumeida, stated that on Tuesday the 19th of June, Israeli forces demanded that residents took off their clothes when passing through a checkpoint to enter their homes. Up until now, inspections at the checkpoint have consisted mainly of ID checks, bag checks and body searches, where men are forced to lift up their shirts and the legs of their pants.

A man in Tel Rumeida is forced to remove his clothing at a checkpoint (photo: IMEMC)

A member of the Abu Aisha family who was visiting from abroad told International Solidarity Movement activists, “I was held at this checkpoint by Israeli forces for two hours when I came to visit my father because my name was not written in their book. My father lives here, my brothers live here, we have the same name – but I could not pass to see them in their house for all that time because of paperwork.” Eventually, after a long wait, he was allowed to pass.

On Friday the 22nd June, for the second day in a row, residents of Tel Rumeida participated in a sit-in at Shliva checkpoint to demonstrate against the constant harassment and humiliation, in particular the introduction of strip-searches, caused at the checkpoints in the area.

Residents of Tel Rumeida participate in another sit-in at Shliva checkpoint on Friday afternoon (photo: ISM)

Heavily armed soldiers were stationed at either end of the peaceful protest and after around two hours hours declared that demonstrators had two minutes on the clock to leave.

Heavily armed soldiers were stationed at both sides of the checkpoint on Friday (photo: ISM)

Taysir Abu Sneina, the mayor of al-Khalil, also came to speak with residents and sit in solidarity.

Taysir Abu Sneina speaks to demonstrators through the checkpoint before entering to sit in solidarity with residents (photo: ISM)

Checkpoints for humiliation: a journal piece

4th April 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine

Shuhada checkpoint gate. To the left, the closed-off room through which one must deal with Israeli forces behind a bullet-proof screen before being allowed – or denied – passage.

Earlier this month, an international woman was ordered to ‘take off her clothes’ after setting off the alarm whilst passing the metal detector at Shuhada checkpoint, occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). This is a personal journal of the events.

Humiliation, harassment, intimidation – a daily occurance for anyone required by the Israeli occupying forces to pass through Shuhada checkpoint to reach their home. This is how the Israeli occupation makes it’s presence felt and enforces its inhumanity, and it rarely comes as a surprise anymore. Still, when the metal detector alarm sounds and the soldier nonchalantly tells a woman to ‘take off her clothes’, she’s is taken aback: Who gave them the right to even ask something like that? Do they not have the tiniest bit of decency? Do they think that their automatic weapons – ready to shoot at any time – give them the right to make such a request?

Inside the checkpoint – in a room closed to outside observation – heavily armed, stern-faced young soldiers ask a woman to undress. It is painfully apparent that this is not simply a bad joke. The small room begins to feel as though it’s getting smaller and smaller as  more soldiers begin to enter from outside and gather behind the bullet-proof glass. With all their buddies present for this show of power and superiority, one of them claims that it’s just for “security” – to ask a person to remove their clothing in plain view of heavily-armed soldiers. It’s “just about security” when they tell you that, if you’re not willing to take off your clothes, you’re hiding a gun – all the while firmly gripping theirs.

How dare a woman have the audacity not to immediately follow an occupying soldiers’ orders? To even dare to call out their lack of decency? But occupation has never heard of human dignity. To the eyes of the occupation, having a number male soldiers and surveillance cameras watch at arms length whilst a female soldier commands a woman to get undressed in a checkpoint just another part of the routine treatment of the occupied population. Just another case of a heavily-armed Israeli soldier ordering someone to do as he wishes as a show of power: a power bestowed upon him by a machine-gun and the knowledge of the unfaltering support and impunity – both social and military – behind his actions.

When it is finally discovered to be the woman’s boots setting off the alarm (a daily and usually unproblematic occurance) and noone cares to check the boots nor the woman’s bag, it is clear that the objective here is not security but humiliation. But this is how the Israeli occupation operates: by inflicting the most humiliation possible on the occupied population to break its spirit. Humiliation, humiliation, humalition. Day in and day out.