Y.K., Staff Sgt., Infantry Brigade
When "surprise" checkpoints are put up, then you tell the passengers to get out and lift up their shirts. The vehicle is given an initial search and is sent over to a side road. There the vehicle is more extensively searched and the passengers' IDs are checked by the General Security Services. During the search, the passengers car keys and cell phones are taken away. If anything is discovered then the appropriate authorities are called. If nothing is found, as was always the case when I was involved, the vehicle and its occupants are left at the side of the road until the "ambush" is removed. There is no difference in procedure when the driver is accompanied by members of his family. The working assumption is that if one vehicle passes through, the ambush will be exposed and we will have to dismantle it. When the ambush is over, the car keys and cell phone are returned. If someone with an urgent medical situation arrives at the "surprise" checkpoint, a decision is made based on a judgment call. There is no definition of an urgent medical condition, but it is easy to know. If we let such a case through it means that the checkpoint has to be dismantled, and so the decision must be approved by the company commander. Sometimes we describe the situation, ask for permission and get it over the walkie-talkie. Sometimes the company commander comes to the checkpoint. It depends on him. If there are sick people in the vehicle, but not "urgent cases" they generally wouldn't be allowed through.
Sometimes there are incidents of bullying and cruel treatment, mainly out of boredom. Whether such things happen or not depends on the temperament of the soldiers and commander in the field. The orders are that we are not to touch the Palestinians' property, including when we search their vehicles. The Palestinians have no one to turn to. The soldiers can do whatever they want. Many people who pass through the checkpoints are merchants, and the soldiers "confiscate" their fruit, vegetables, cola, and the like, even though such actions are completely forbidden. It depends on the commander at the checkpoint. I saw cases in which a crate of cola was removed from a Palestinian vehicle.
A car that is caught driving through the field will be checked. If everything is ok, he will be taken to the checkpoint where he might be detained for up to ten or twelve hours to "teach him a lesson" as he is told. In principle, it is not allowed to detain people this way, but it happens all the time with the full knowledge of the commanders in the field. I saw a regiment commander do it. In the regiment or company commanders' briefings we are specifically told to hold them up for a while just to teach them a lesson. It also depends who the company or regiment commander is.
Even the soldier with the best intentions, who is on guard at the checkpoint from 8 AM - 8 PM, in the heat, will reach a breaking point. The heat and fatigue affect the ability to treat them one way or another. You sit in the shade, and then have to get up, motion for a car to approach and examine it. Sometimes you wait ten minutes until you motion to a car to approach but sometimes it takes an hour or two, simply because you don't have the strength to get up and search them. It creates huge traffic jams. On an average morning, when things are going quickly, people will wait four or five hours in line. In other places you can often wait from 4 AM to 2 PM. The commander at the checkpoint can arbitrarily decide not to allow the passage of someone with a permit, or let someone without a permit pass through. A commander at the checkpoint can decide that something is not to his liking and confiscate a permit or certificate of any kind - it happen a lot and quite arbitrarily. The issue of passage of merchandise is also arbitrary: Sometimes they are permitted to pass goods through "back-to-back" [ unloading the goods from one truck and loading onto another] and sometime the commander decides not to let them through. Anyone who shows up after the checkpoint is closed will have to wait until the morning, even if he was detained at another checkpoint or for any other reason.
The rationale behind the checkpoint is obvious to me. But in three years that this checkpoint has be in place, not once were any weapons discovered. In my opinion, the idea is to make life hard for the Palestinian citizenry. There is no operational objective.