Hanna Barag: A Different Israeli View

On Wednesday, April 18th, 2007, Ms. Hanna Barag of Machsom Watch spoke to Meretz USA supporters, offering them “A Different Israeli View” and describing the sweeping system of Israeli checkpoints pock-marking the West Bank (“Machsom” means “barrier” or “checkpoint” in Hebrew). 

For Hanna's full report, click here.

Established in 2001, Machsom Watch’s 400 volunteers are all women, who maintain a regular presence at the checkpoints in order to monitor the behavior of Israeli soldiers and police, trying to ensure that human rights violations are not committed against the Palestinians.  The Machsom Watch women also record their observations, and issue reports to the media, decision-makers and the general public through their website and periodic reports.  Machsom Watch is also dedicated to ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, believing that the occupation is harmful not only to the Palestinians, but to the moral, social and psychological fiber of Israeli society as well.

Using maps and slides, Ms. Barag emphasized that Machsom Watch focuses on the hundreds of checkpoints that exist inside the West Bank, as opposed to the “border crossings” at the entrance to Israel proper.  These “internal checkpoints” control and restrict Palestinian movement to such a degree that Palestinian travel between West Bank cities, towns and villages has become all but impossible.  Ms. Barag noted that the effect of these restrictions is a stifling of all facets of Palestinian civil society: The education system, social and family life, the economy and job market, political assembly, and even basic health services.  The checkpoint system, Ms. Barag explained, had ruptured the West Bank, transforming it into a series of enclaves surrounded by blocs of Israeli settlements.

Regarding the situation in Hebron, Ms. Barag pointed out that the Israeli-controlled section of the city (“H2”) featured no less than 132 checkpoints, designed to shield the 500 Jewish settlers living there amongst tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Ms. Barag reported that when Machsom Watch was first created, there were many cases of physical violence against Palestinians at the checkpoints.  Over the years, she noted, these cases had diminished greatly.  But, Ms. Barag stressed, the checkpoint system still creates an enormous sense of misery, despair, helplessness and humiliation among Palestinians who – even to make the shortest of journeys – need to endure hours of waiting and strip-searches at checkpoint after checkpoint, only to be turned back by the Israeli security forces in many cases.

Ms. Barag also questioned the security value of the internal checkpoints, arguing that they are designed to protect the settlers, not the vast majority of Israelis living within the Green Line.  She added that Israel’s “Council for Peace and Security” (an NGO made up of high-ranking reserve officers in the Israeli security forces and retired senior officials from the Israeli government and diplomatic corps) concurred with this assessment. 

Ms. Barag insisted that the severe restrictions on the Palestinians’ freedom of movement made them feel as if they had nothing to lose.  Desperate Palestinians, she submitted, were the biggest threat to Israeli security. 

Consequently, Ms. Barag bemoaned the fact that groups such as Machsom Watch were often depicted in Israel as undermining the Israeli interest or the work of the IDF.  Unfortunately, she complained, most Israelis simply prefer not to know what is happening at the checkpoints, and under the occupation generally.  But as a loyal Israeli citizen, she said, she felt the need to make sure that Israel, as the occupying power of the West Bank, was carrying out its responsibility toward the Palestinians there.

The Machsom Watch volunteers carry out their observations in teams of 2 – 4 women, at some 40 checkpoints (of the more than 500 checkpoints inside the West Bank) every day, seven days a week.  In cases of severe intimidation or gross human rights violations, they try to intervene by appealing to high-ranking IDF officers. They also offer help over the phone, receiving calls from the many Palestinians who, due to travel restrictions, are unable even to reach the checkpoints.  In addition, the volunteers “patrol” the old West Bank roads on which Palestinians are permitted to travel (many of the newer West Bank roads are now “for Israelis only”) in order to monitor the situation there. 

Among the newer Machsom Watch projects is the monitoring of Israel’s Military Court proceedings, in an effort to ensure due process and fair hearings.  The group also tries to help those Palestinian villagers who find themselves “trapped” between the Green Line border to their west and the separation barrier to their east.  These villagers often find themselves with extremely limited access to the farmland that provides their livelihood.
Machsom Watch enjoys the assistance of a number of Knesset members, who pitch in to help resolve day-to-day humanitarian problems.  But, Ms. Barag noted enthusiastically, no one does more to help than Meretz MK Ran Cohen.

Hanna Barag has been a member of Machsom Watch since 2002.  A retired political organizer, the mother of two, and grandmother of four, she was born in Haifa, grew up in Tel Aviv, and is now living in Jerusalem.