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Israeli women curb their soldiers' excesses

"I saw what my country was doing as an occupier ... But then I realized I could prevent such things."

Yehudit Elkana, founder of Checkpoint Watch

An Israeli woman runs toward a soldier, admonishing him not to hit a Palestinian teen he had just slammed against a fence at a West Bank roadblock.

The soldier slowly relaxes his grip and eventually lets the teen go -- another small victory for Sara Alimi, 53, a volunteer in Checkpoint Watch, a group of about 300 Israeli women trying to stop abuses at dozens of checkpoints restricting Palestinian travel in the West Bank.

Every week, the women fan out, armed with menthol cream against the effects of tear gas and mobile phones to complain to senior commanders.

The women don't reflect Israeli consensus.

Many Israelis feel the barriers serve as a shield, albeit an imperfect one, against suicide bombers and gunmen who have killed hundreds of people since 2000, and that the Palestinians are largely to blame for the hardships caused by the travel bans since they are not reining in militants.

Critics consider the women a threat to security.

"In a directed and organized way, they disrupt the work of soldiers at checkpoints who are trying, not always successfully, to prevent the entry of terrorists," political commentator Yossi Olmert wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily.

The army says troops are told to cooperate with the women, but some soldiers consider them a nuisance.

Founders of the organization, including Yehudit Elkana, 69, said they sought a practical way to express their opposition to Israel's 36-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"I saw what my country was doing as an occupier," said Elkana, whose son is a lieutenant colonel in the army reserves.

"But then I realized I could prevent such things," she said.

All members are women. The group learned from experience that male activists tended to inflame situations, if only because soldiers considered them more of a threat.

Palestinians often seek out the volunteers. At one crossing, Palestinian mothers sending their children to school often ask the Israeli women to take them by the hand and walk them across.

Sometimes, the women feel powerless.

Aya Kanyuk, a 43-year-old bookstore clerk, said that in March she walked in front of a soldier's rifle to stop him from shooting at youths throwing stones at the Qalandiya checkpoint north of Jerusalem. Her intervention forced the soldier to halt, but by then, 14-year-old Omar Muater had already been shot in the neck. The Palestinian boy died three days later.

Qalandiya is one of the busiest checkpoints, controling traffic between the northern and southern West Bank. When Alimi and her friends arrived there for a vigil this week, they found that the checkpoint commander, who identified himself only as Amit, had stopped car traffic in retaliation for youths throwing stones. Amit demanded that the drivers get the boys to stop.

Alimi and fellow volunteer Tova Szeintuch called the regional commander, to no avail, and the roadblock remained closed for another two hours, with dozens of trucks and cars lining up on either side.

Palestinian truck driver Tariq Suraki watched the two women arguing with Amit.

"They help us, they are real human beings," he said.

Szeintuch, 60, later told a soldier who had shouted at a handicapped Palestinian that she was concerned about him becoming increasingly short-tempered during his two-week stint.

"I don't want to hear you," he said, kicking at a concrete block with his boot.
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