Posted on 05/09/2007 12:07:41 PM PDT by Alouette
Despite optimistic name, Palestinian-only road a nightmare
B. Michael Published: 05.09.07, 15:18 / Israel Opinion
Bir Naballah is a cage. It may be called “The Bir Naballah enclave” in the occupier’s clean language, but this cannot change the facts. It is a cage. Perhaps a compound. Another atrocity that emerged from the winding route of the separation fence.
In the past, the village was practically a Jerusalem suburb, as were the three neighboring villages. Today they are surrounded by bars and fences and concrete walls on every side, with only one gate connecting them to the outer world.
This route passes through a tunnel under highway 45 and leads to Ramallah. Not to Jerusalem, the center of the villagers’ lives until the compound was set up, but just to Ramallah.
From there and only there are they permitted to try their luck at the Kalandia checkpoint in an effort to reach Jerusalem.
The "prisoners" are naturally not permitted to use Highway 45 and to travel wherever they like. This highway is prohibited for Palestinians. Only the "ruling power" is allowed to drive on it, not those being ruled. They can only crawl beneath it.
In the occupier’s polished language, the only gateway out of the compound bears the festive name of "Fabric of Life".
Residents of the compound petitioned the High Court of Justice against their incarceration. The Court, headed by retired Chief Justice Barak, listened to them patiently and then ruled:
Indeed had the "Fabric of Life" road not been built, we believe that the fate of the fence in the Bir Naballah area would have been similar to the fate of the fence in the Alfei Menashe enclave (where the High Court changed the route of the fence that enclosed Palestinian villages.)
Yet due to the "Fabric of Life" road, the situation before us is different…the link between the villages and the Ramallah area has been maintained by means of the Bir Naballah-Kalandia road. This road is open to traffic and it enables free, uninterrupted movement by residents of the area to the Ramallah area, or via the Kalandia crossing - to Jerusalem. (The High Court of Justice 4289/05)
Following is a routine experience at the "Fabric of Life" on the way out of the Bir Naballah compound.
Detained for questioning
Wednesday May 2, 2007, it is five in the afternoon. A usual a checkpoint has been set up on the "Fabric of Life" road. A long row of cars are lined up. There's a long line beyond the checkpoint as well.
This is the unique military interpretation of the judge's words on "free and uninterrupted movement." And as is customary on the "Fabric of Life" road, people are also "detained for questioning". It’s a type of local punishment, the fate of Palestinians who soldiers take a disliking to.
One of those "detained for questioning" is a taxi driver who was found to be carrying a screwdriver. Would it occur to anyone that an innocent taxi driver would possess a screwdriver? Thus, the poor little screwdriver was marked a "dangerous weapon", and its owner detained. He has been detained for almost two hours.
Meanwhile the lines are growing longer, the usual chaos is evident, cars and people are passing by slowly, enjoying the fine "Fabric of Life".
The taxi driver pulls out a few sunflower seeds and throws the shells on the road.
What nerve! Only an Arab can be such an animal. Has anyone ever seen a Jew spit out sunflower seed shells in public? A soldier obsessed with cleanliness notices the abomination and quickly takes action.
In an angry and educational tone of voice, he instructs the taxi diver to pick up the shells. The checkpoint is surrounded by military trash, but the fate of our trash is not the fate of local trash.
One of those present makes a comment to one of the soldiers, and the answer he received was, "Ok, soon we'll round up some more Arabs to clean up.”
The taxi driver begins to sweep the road under the IDF's strict eye.
One has to be made of steel not to be swept up in past memories. Not a single soldier is outraged by the sight in front of them. Only at 7 p.m., almost three hours after being detained because of a screwdriver, the driver is released.
And this happens day after day, week after week, year after year. This is the "Fabric of Life" road, in whose name the honorable Justice Barak permits the incarceration of the residents of Bir Naballah in a compound.
Would it be going overboard to propose that the justices at the High Court of Justice get off their seats and pay a visit to the "Fabric of Life" road to see for themselves what their verdicts are worth?
And as is customary on the "Fabric of Life" road, people are also "detained for questioning".
This sounds like an accurate description of what happened to me on Sunday evening at the Sarnia/Port Huron Canada/US border.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
*stops the car* Just don’t puke on my new car seats. :)
Sounds like the checkpoints/fence are working then......if they’re screaming about it then it must be effective. Expand the Fence.
Two words:
Cluster Bombs.
L
So which side was hassling you - US or canada?
Waaa...
Waaaa...
WAAAAAAAA!!!!!
Those evil JOOOS! Why won’t they roll over and let the Palis kill them? WHY?
Idiot bastage.
No mention of the atrocities prevented by the fence.
No sympathy. None.
Move if you don’t like it, Ahmed.
We were “randomly selected” for “additional processing” coming into the US.
Other “randomly selected” vehicles were a van with California plates driven by members of a rock band—the vehicle was being “randomly” disassembled (looking for some “random” drugs)—and another van driven by some jihadi-looking Middle-Easterns.
I guess they needed a middle-aged Hasidic couple to balance things out.
Sounds good to me. Every two hours a Pali spends in a car waiting in a line is two hours he cannot be making a bomb. Perhaps some of them will ponder, away from their home, how nice it would be to BE home, and cease their relentless efforts to destroy their home or the possibility of having a future home. But I ain’t holding my breath.
You know if life is so bad why don’t they apply for “Refugee Status and move to Syria?
W
Hey Pales!
Quit blowing up innocent people, and then I’m sure travel restrictions will be eased.
Unfortunately, it has been proved that the only way to keep you from suicide bombing is to perfectly segregate you from the innocents.
So live in the hell you created and
QUITCHERBITCHEN!
Or Tehran?
Or Makkah?
Or the Bekka Valley?
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