Time Code

Script

Susan:

Certainly growing up as a jew, I’ve always had some notion of what justice was about, and I’ve always felt that I can contribute to try and create more justice in the world

Alix:

My children really are not great supporters, they’re more afraid than, you know against the politics, or against what I’m doing. They’re more afraid for me.

Edna:

My husband thinks I only see part of the picture, that I am only one sided, he doesn’t know what happened to me, he thinks I have changed since he knew me.

Title: Mother courage

Roni:

We are going to the place that we can call the frontline, because we go there, no-one can say you haven’t seen, you haven’t experienced. We tell only about things we have personally seen.

Voice over:

Machsom watch is an all female Israeli organization, founded in 2001 in response to repeated reports of human rights abuses towards Palestinians at Israeli army checkpoints within the West Bank.

Inbal:

Our strength is in our weakness, we come unguarded, we offer trust, we offer belief in people, we offer some kind of innocence. We want to bring it back into these tormented areas.

Voice over:

This is Abu Dis, a gap in the segregation wall that divides Jerusalem in two. Soon even this small opening will be closed and entry into the holy city will be near impossible for these Palestinians.

Man: In Arabic (English subtitles)

One at a time! One at a time

Barbara:

So people are trying to get in for the Friday prayers and the border police say that no-one is allowed in unless they have a special permit to enter, and people are getting angry and frustrated.

Palestinian professor:

For everything, I am a professor from a male clinic and every month I am just begging on my knees to get this (holds up permit)

Barabra:

So our friend here just called a higher ranking officer to make sure that the border police aren’t just ignoring regulations.

Soldier: In Israeli (English subtitles)

If there’s any pressure no-one gets through!

Voice over:

This is Beit Iba, a busy checkpoint near Nablus that has thousands of workers, students and families waiting to be checked everyday. Though passage is never guaranteed.

Voice over:

A Machsom watch woman steps in and helps to negotiate the potentially volatile situation between a young soldier and a young Palestinian man.

This Palestinian man and his friends have been pulled out of the queue to be checked by the soldiers.

They are resisting being held up.

Inevitably tensions begin to rise between the young soldier and Palestinian.

Fathiya: (English subtitles)

He will stay and hour or two hours and then they give him the ID and go home.

Voice over:

An hour later back up arrives

Solider (Subtitles)

The Ids of these people are being checked, when the check is over

If the check is ok they will go home, if not they will stay here.

Inbal:

We represent for the soldiers some part of Israel they left behind, when they crossed the border into the Palestinian territory. And we remind them that they were brought up to respect other people. Our mere existence in the area, as grown up women has some effect I think on the soldiers, even though they would not admit it.

I, when I come here I’m also divided because I am an Israeli and I think of them as young people that could have been my sons.

It’s very emotional, my feelings towards them, you know I want to shout at them and curse them, and I also want to hug them and tell them it will be over soon

Voice over:

This is Z’Atara a busy vehicle checkpoint on a main thoroughfare in the heart of the West Bank.

Edna has been coming to these checkpoints every week for over four years.

Edna:

He’s here from 6.10am and he said they told him to get undressed and show they have no bombs on them. They are waiting here and they don’t know why, the soldiers won’t speak Arabic, they don’t speak Hebrew, so now lets try to see what happened.

I see an officer here.

They said don’t bother me, you can stand and watch but don’t bother me with my work.

Arabic man speak Edna translates:

Today they check my car tomorrow they check somebody else’s car, but everyday we stand hours and hours in the checkpoints.

Voice over:

Back at Beit Iba the young Palestinian men have been waiting over 4 hours handcuffed and blindfolded for their ID’s to be checked and returned

Palestinian young man:

Cell phone rings:

It’s my mother, my mother

Abu Dis Claire:

When you see all these people, and I don’t know how long they have been waiting, it has suddenly been one hour or something like that.

That’s what’s so ridiculous about the situation, because it’s always working out like that. First they are waiting and waiting and then suddenly someone comes, and says OK.

Voiceover:

The Machsom watch women’s earlier phone call to a commander has paid off.

Claire:

Well it’s part of the system, that the Palestinians never know when they are going to go if they are going to go, you know they have been living almost 15 years this way

Z’Atara Edna:

When we came here an hour ago, these people in this car were waiting here for 2 hours. Their ID’s were taken away and they are being checked by the soldiers, and when they finished checking them, they returned the ID’s but they were not the right ID’s. The soldiers looked for their ID’s, they did not find them, and eventually they came to the conclusion, they gave their ID’s to somebody else, and now they are waiting until the other people will notice that they are going with out their Id’s and they will return, maybe today maybe tomorrow

Other Machsom watch lady:

And they can’t move without their ID’s, you know, they have to show it every few meters, here is a checkpoint, there is a checkpoint, and there is a checkpoint, and there is a checkpoint, you know it’s unbelievable, so they are going with different ID’s.

Edna:

Speaks Arabic no subtitles

No matter where you will go you will find something to do.

Voiceover:

Darkness has fallen and the three Palestinian men are still waiting for their ID’s to be checked and returned.

Despite the late hour of the day the ladies of Machsom watch remain undettered.

Soldier subtitle:

Go away and we’ll let them go

Voiceover:

After 9 hours of waiting, they are finally released with no explanation as why they were detained for so long.

Edna:

You know bad things happened during the holocaust and nobody went to interfere or to stop it or just to look. I don’t want to be in a situation that I know not far away, you saw it was half an hour drive from here, these things are happening. The Palestinians are helpless there, I don’t help them that much, but they know that somebody in Israel wants to help them, and he suffers with them or sees their suffering, that’s why I go, but really I hate to go there.

End credits