Checkpoint

Last week I visited the Cinemuse Theatre in Stellenbosch to watch Checkpoint (2003). It’s a documentary highlighting the treatment of Palestinian people by the Israeli border police at checkpoints.

It is powerful and a lesson on how NOT to treat people. I say people, because it does not matter whether you are a Palestinian or an Israeli or even a supporter of either of the two camps, there are things you must never do to a fellow human being.

Just writing these words makes me emotional. I cannot stand injustices and unfairness. It grates me to my core when I see these things happening and I am powerless to correct it. I feel less like a human because how can we be of the same species?

Standout moments for me:

• The varied attitudes of the Israeli soldiers guarding the checkpoints. Some are there because it’s a job. “Time to go put on a show.” They would probably rather be doing something else. Others are there because they enjoy the power it affords them. There was one particular group of soldiers at the Bethlehem checkpoint that were so smet (disgusting). I hated them. They were stopping females who were passing through to check them out and hit on them. “Tell her to turn around.” Another group of soldiers were particularly malicious towards a Palestinian man by making him wait for what seemed like hours in the freezing cold and rain. “Let him wait.”

• The faces of people. You look at the faces of the people and you can just see the hardships they have experienced. Their faces have been ravaged by life.

• There was one scene where I broke down and sobbed. A Palestinian mother tries to cross a checkpoint with her three sons. The boys are probably all younger than 10 years old. She has to go to the District Coordinating Office (DCO) to get permits for her sons. She is granted entry, but she cannot take the children with her. She tells the children to go home, but the two youngest ones refuse to leave and begin to cry. She literally chases the boys away like dogs. “Go home! Take care of your brothers. I’ll be back tomorrow.” There is no room for softness when one is trying to survive.

• The film has no narrator. I only realised this when lying in bed and replaying in my head what I had seen. You do not see or hear the filmmaker at all. There is no one providing ‘spin’. It is real footage of real people in real life.

A Palestinian man in the movie says, “Nobody knows about us here. Nobody in the world.”

People of Israel and Palestine, I know about you and I care about you.