Military roadblocks and closures are still in place throughout the West Bank, so highways are still out of bounds to Palestinians. We're taking the scenic route again.
After another dusty journey through wee villages, bumping and rattling over roads barely more than dirt tracks, our service taxi reached Tubas, in the North of the Jordan Valley.
Access to water has long been a problem here. The Gazan breakout was the pretext to reduce the flow even more.
We accompanied a driver trying to supply families near the town of Jiftlik with water. He regularly spends 2 hours at a checkpoint having his truck and his cargo of 10 000l of water examined
by the army. To shorten his working day, and help him out when his schedule gets messed up, local people put him up for the night. Water is vital and everyone does what they can to ease his
burden.
So the IOF has 8 soldiers manning a checkpoint in the middle of nowhere. You see a long queue of cars and agricultural vehicles in the sun, greenhouses and some shelters. The army was kind to
us and let us wait in the car while they checked our ID. Usually the guys have to wait in the sun - note : it's hot in the Jordan Valley.
Our water truck got through, but our driver was refused. So we took the long way round, through the hills. You thought the checkpoint was a security measure? No, no. You've not been
following. You can always find another route. Proof, if any is needed, that the purpose of the IOF checkpoints is just to slow everyone down and make life difficult.
Écrire commentaire