Gideon Levy, ethnographer of despair and rage, Haaretz, August 31, 2007
August 31, 2007 6:08 am Gideon Levy, Checkpoints as Breeding Grounds of TerrorGideon Levy, ethnographer of despair and rage, Haaretz
“For the first time in my life I see my mother suffering and I can’t help her. For 46 years, from the time I was born, such a thing never happened - that I couldn’t help my mother,” says the son sadly, after he tried in vain to take his mother from their home in east Barta’a to the government hospital in Jenin, a 20-minute drive during ordinary times, which haven’t been ordinary for a long time.
It’s possible that it was his mother’s time to die in any case, but why did it have to be such a humiliating death, on the floor of a van at the checkpoint? How many more such articles will still be written, and how many times will the Israel Defense Forces explain that “humanitarian cases” are allowed to pass through the checkpoint, an explanation that repeatedly contrasts with reality? On Monday three weeks ago, Kamela Kabha, 78, died that way at the Reihan (Barta’a) checkpoint, while her son Tawfik pleaded for her life.