Crossing checkpoints is a far too common process that Palestinians have to endure while doing regular daily functions like going to school and work or visiting friends and family. For women, this process includes added difficulties during the physical act of crossing a checkpoint and as a secondary impact on their lives beyond the checkpoint itself.
To contextualize, after the signing of the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was split into three areas which referred to varying degrees of control by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel. Area A consists of PA civil and security control, Area B consists of PA civil control and Israeli security control, and Area C consists of Israeli civil and security control.
Area C is mainly designated for the illegal settlements that house Israeli settlers and cut through Palestinian cities, separating them from each other. The settlers have separate settler-only roads while Palestinians use roads that are congested with checkpoints.
For a Palestinian to move between their cities, even if just within Area A, checkpoints are near inevitable. As the illegal settlements expand, so does the fragmentation of the West Bank. Consequently, the effort exerted by Palestinians to move between cities intensifies.
Hence, checkpoints are a gendered space and are constructed with a focus on men. They also further exclude religious women’s rights by forcing them to be in close contact with men. While humanitarian lanes exist for women, children, and the elderly, they are rarely opened, leaving women vulnerable in the general lanes.
Therefore, women are placed in cage-like structures that are packed with men. They have been pushed around and bruised by metal bars. Sometimes, men open up the path to give priority to women. Other times, men shame women for being at a checkpoint that is regarded as a place exclusive for men.
The burden of crossing a checkpoint does not stop here. Indeed, women also face harassment from Israeli soldiers while passing through the metal detectors. Some women reported needing to remove layer after layer of clothing as the machine would not stop beeping all while the men were watching behind them.
In their 2021 paper following the accounts of Palestinian women, Mark Griffiths and Jemima Repo tell a story by Suad. The story discusses the issue that a woman faced at a checkpoint: she kept making the metal detector alarm go off at Checkpoint 300 between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
“She took off so many things that she got scared and started crying,” said Suad. “I told her to not be scared and asked the men to go back so we could lift her cover dress… It was terrible - it’s a struggle and a humiliation, especially for a woman.”
Another challenge that further impacts a woman’s ability to cross checkpoints is traveling with children. Children get lost in crowded spaces and often face difficulties in breathing. However, it is the arbitrary nature of the permit system which worsens the process of crossing a checkpoint.
In a personal account by Randa in Griffiths and Repo’s paper, she described a difficult situation that she encountered with her seven-year-old son. He was allowed to pass through the checkpoint but she was refused passage and had to return home on her own.
“It was very difficult, he was holding my hand… He would not let go of me [because] he wanted to be with me” said Randa. “Eventually he had to go on with his aunts… but he was in tears the whole time while with them in Jerusalem… because his mother was denied to spend the day with him.”
The consequences resulting from the restrictions on movement are not limited to the physical process of crossing a checkpoint. For women, the impacts are felt in their own homes.
In fact, in order to make up for the lengthy process of crossing the checkpoints, men who work in occupied Palestine tend to leave their homes in the early hours of the morning before their children wake up and arrive back home late at night after their children have slept.
Women, in return, also face disrupted sleep and bear the brunt of housework and family care duties. They are left alone to raise their children, dealing with the often negative impact that the separation from a parental unit has on the children’s mental health.
Additionally, some men develop aggression due to the lack of sleep, isolation from family, and humiliation faced at checkpoints. Their aggressive behavior is targeted towards women because they are the focal point of the household and are always awake for their husbands.
All in all, while all Palestinians suffer from the checkpoints, it is important not to discount women’s unique experiences. The functioning of women’s daily lives is restricted both at the physical checkpoints and within their homes.
Until checkpoints are dismantled, it is difficult to find a solution that would ease the process for women to run their daily activities. Regardless, the continued documentation of women’s experiences at checkpoints will be vital in aiding their pursuit of liberation.