About 3 weeks ago while I was in Palestine to be with my sick mother, I had to wait with many other Palestinians for an extended period of time at the Qalandia checkpoint.
The reason for the longer than usual delay was that there were 2 elderly women being transported from Gaza to East Jerusalem via Ramallah for emergency heart treatment at Al-Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem.
The women’s travel permits stated that they were only allowed to travel between the hours of 6 AM and 6PM that day, BUT as always, they were delayed by the Israeli military which escorted them to the Palestinian territories and handed them over to the Palestinian authorities who in turn had to send them through the Qalandia checkpoint (and Israeli scrutiny again) on their way to the East Jerusalem Hospital.
By the time they had eventually arrived at the Qalandia checkpoint, it was AFTER 6:20 PM, 20 minutes past the time stated on their travel permit due to the extra delays imposed by the Israeli military BEFORE entering the Palestinian territories.
The Israeli soldiers manning the Qalandia checkpoint refused to let the 2 elderly women with heart conditions enter because it was 20 minutes past 6PM. After about an hour of very tense pleas which threatened to turn violent (a large crowd of Palestinians were angered by the unreasonableness of the Israeli soldiers), the women were finally allowed to enter…
I sight of what happened next will FOREVER be ingrained in my memory:
The 2 elderly, sick women, passed through the checkpoint, and once they got to the other side, kneeled AND KISSED the ground…After MANY weeks of waiting and over 12 hours of travel time which covered no more than 15 miles at the most, the women were finally getting a CHANCE to be treated for their life threatening ailments…
My eyes moistened at this sight and it was one that will live for me forever…Think about this next time you have to “wait” a few moments in a doctor’s office or in a traffic jam…
Mike
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