{mosimage}“If you want to pass through the checkpoint, you will have to dance for usâ€Â, an Israeli soldier told a Palestinian child who was trying to cross a gate of the Separation Wall in his way back home in Jaba’, near Jenin.
Mohammad Hasan, 14 years old, looked at the soldier, who had his gun pointed at him, when he soldier repeated his request and told him ‘If you want to go back home, you will have to dance for usâ€Â.
‘The soldiers surrounded me, and one of them asked me about my name, they he shouted at me saying “Dance, now!â€Â, so I had no other solution and danced for five minutesâ€Â, Mohammad said.
The amused soldiers, gathered around Mohammad and watched him dance for five full minutes, while he was filled of fear that one of them might just attack him, ‘If he doesn’t like the way he dances’!
Dozens of residents were detained and not allowed passage until the soldiers fulfilled their ‘desire’ to see this child dancing for them, dancing in order to pass, or in order to survive!
This story is only one of daily stories and suffering residents of Jaba’ have to face on daily basis.
Kamal Alawna, a resident of Jaba’ said that soldiers repeatedly closed the village without any reason, and conducted several invasions after imposing curfew, barring the residents from leaving their homes.
Firas Yousef said that soldiers stopped him near the gate of the wall and forced him to undress and lay on the ground for two hours.
Yousef was repeatedly clubbed and kicked while he was laying on the ground, not allowed move.
Recently, the residents were not allowed to reach their farmlands, after soldiers blocked their way; the plants were also destroyed after military bulldozers were parked in their fields.
Resident Wajdi Mohammad said that soldiers barred him from reaching his field, and when he managed to ‘sneak’ his way to his field, soldiers attacked and punched him forcing him out of his own land.
Also, soldiers stationed at the entrance of the village detained dozens of residents for several hours, and searched them.
Several residents were forced against the wall for the whole day before they were allowed to cross.
Fares Alawneh, a school student, said that he and dozens of students were not able to reach his school for five days; soldiers detained and questioned them, and destroyed their schoolbooks.
The Wall remains there, as a constant obstacle the residents have to face on daily basis, students, teachers, employees and farmers will need a soldier with a ‘good mood’ in order to be allowed through the gate.
Reaching school, or work or even when reaching a hospital or a clinic requires waiting for several hours, yet after waiting for that long, facing humiliation and ‘amused’ soldiers, residents just might not be allowed to pass depending on the mood of the soldiers ‘guarding the gates’ which are separating the people from each other and from reaching their lands, and other surrounding areas.
Written by Palestine News Network
