A.R., Tank Company Commander
There is a main road that connects Qalqilya to the rest of the world and it is off limits to Palestinians. Every passage becomes a serious issue. The army's claim that every area under siege has one open route is simply incorrect. I tell my Israeli friends to try and picture the community in which they live cut off from the rest of the world. How would they manage? It is not only a question of getting to the hospital. What if someone wants to visit their sister who lives in the neighboring town?
The definition of what is and is no allowed to pass through a checkpoint changes all the time. Every company commander can decide when and how a road is closed. Every regiment commander has a D9 bulldozer [to make mounds of earth to block roads]. The company commander in the field has very broad discretion in deciding which roads Palestinians can travel on and which they cannot, and concerning the passage of the sick and wounded. Officially, ambulances are supposed to be allowed through after inspection. The case of a private vehicle with a sick person is a judgment call. There are no instructions concerning private vehicles with pregnant women. As a company commander, I never once heard of a "procedure for the passage of the sick" when being instructed before taking up a position, not even verbally. When Palestinians complained of the death of a sick person because s/he was not allowed through a checkpoint, I didn't have to provide an explanation to anyone. The regiment commander asked me about it and that was that. No one really asks for reports on issues concerning the lives of Palestinians.
Testimony of A.R. Tank Company Commander, May 2002.