Machsom Watch

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Machsom Watch, also known as Women for Human Rights, is a human rights organization composed exclusively of Israeli women. The word machsom is Hebrew for "checkpoint," referring to Israeli Defense Forces checkpoints who's stated purpose is to prevent Palestinian terrorists from the West Bank from entering Israel [1].

According to its website, the group's stated aims are to monitor the behavior of soldiers and police at checkpoints; ensure that the human and civil rights of Palestinians attempting to enter Israel are protected; and record and report the results of their observations to the widest possible audience, from decision-makers to the general public. <ref name=watchabout>Machsom Watch website, 'About Us', accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref> Some members also see their role as protesting against the existence of the checkpoints. <ref>'Watch' (in Hebrew), accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref> <ref>'Many Mothers' by Sima Kadmon, Yedioth Ahronoth, 21 November, 2003, accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref>

Machsom Watch has been accused of bringing false charges against the Israeli troops, being hostile towards them, and disrupting the operation of checkpoints. <ref name=NGOMonitor>NGO Monitor website, Infofile (see linked articles), accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref> <ref name=Stannard>Stannard, Matthew B. 'A Time Of Change: Israelis, Palestinians And The Disengagement: At Checkpoints, A Gentle Advocate For Palestinians', San Francisco Chronicle, 2 August, 2005, accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref> However, the IDF also claims to have listened to the group's contentions regarding the checkpoints and implemented training procedures to ensure respectful behaviour by soldiers.<ref>Haughey, Naula. Irish Times, 12 June, 2005. 'Israeli checkpoint monitors decry their army's abuse of Palestinians' - Reproduction, accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref> The group has also won a human rights prize awarded by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

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History

Machsom Watch was founded in 2001 by Ronnee Jaeger, previously a human-rights worker in Guatemala and Mexico; Adi Kuntsman, who arrived in Israel from the Soviet Union in 1990; and Yehudit Keshet, a former Orthodox Jew and scholar of Talmudic ethics, in response to allegations of human-rights violations at IDF and border-police checkpoints. The group has also expressed concern about what they say is "the excessive Israeli response to the Al Aqsa Intifada and the prolonged closure and siege of villages and towns on the West Bank". <ref name=watchabout />

In early 2002, following a wave of suicide bombings, the IDF checkpoints increased in number and Machsom Watch's activities attracted Israeli media attention bringing more volunteers, including a few men. The involvement of male monitors was not a success, according to Keshet: "Their relationship [with the soldiers] was totally different. They [men] were horrified by what was going on, but at the same time they bonded with the troops." <ref>Hammer, Joshua 'Grandmothers on Guard', Mother Jones, November/December, 2004, accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref> Spokeswoman Adi Dagan added that it was feared that soldiers would be violent towards male monitors and that "we like being in an organization that belongs only to women". <ref> Dagan, Adi 'Interview with JustVision', 12 January, 2005, accessed 12 March, 2006.</ref> By 2004, the group claimed approximately 400 members, all of them women.

In March 2004, the group was awarded the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel for making "a unique contribution to the advancement of human rights in Israel". <ref> ACRI Website, Association for Civil Rights in Israel - Winners, accessed 14 March, 2006.</ref>

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Reactions, accusations of bias and the "violin incident"

During a two-hour meeting with members of the group in March 2006, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz told the women that: "Humanitarianism is not exclusively owned by Machsom Watch and it is tested not only at the checkpoints, but also in preventing suicide bombers from reaching the markets of Tel Aviv and Netanya."<ref>Harel, Amos 'IDF chief invites anti-fence protesters to Tel Aviv meeting', Haaretz, 5 March, 2006, accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref>

Machsom Watch has been accused by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), non-governmental organizations, individual soldiers, and soldiers mothers of disrupting the operation of checkpoints, showing hostility and hurling derogatory comments and curses toward the troops, and making false accusations against them. <ref name=NGOMonitor/><ref name=Stannard/><ref>Weiss, Efrat Leftist group stirs IDF row, YNet News, 22 February, 2006, accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref> NGO Monitor has accused the group of "using emotive and politically charged language that contributes to the demonization of Israel."<ref name=NGOMonitor />

According to Yossi Olmert, a political commentator, Machsom Watch volunteers "disrupt the work of soldiers at checkpoints who are trying, not always successfully, to prevent the entry of terrorists." <ref name=Stannard />

Several organizations in Israel demanded that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) remove the women from checkpoints. Template:Fact Soldiers have protested against an invitation extended by the IDF to Machsom Watch to speak at an army base, seeing the invitation as inappropriate mixing of politics into the military service. <ref>HaLevi, Ezra 'Mothers of Soldiers Protest IDF´s Embrace of Machsom Watch', Arutz Sheva, 23 February, 2006, accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref>

Late in 2004, Machsom Watch was accused of falsely claiming that the IDF forced a Palestinian violinist to play his violin at a checkpoint, a story which was printed worldwide. While originally the IDF said the soldier had acted insensitively, the IDF's commission on the issue, citing the testimonies of several soldiers and members of Machsom Watch, and after reviewing the videotape of the incident, concluded that the violinist had played voluntarily. The Palestinian in question said he had been "asked" to play a sad song. <ref>Rabinowitz, Gavin 'Military denies Palestinian forced to play violin to pass roadblock', Associated Press, 30 November, 2004, accessed 11 March, 2006.</ref>

In an editorial of March 8, 2006, Haaretz decried the negative image that organisations like Machsom Watch have in Israel:

This organization - like other human rights organizations, each of which focuses on a different consequence of the occupation - is the least that Israeli citizens can do to try to prevent injustices stemming from the occupation. Life under the anomaly of an occupation regime produces strange solutions, such as the presence of women alongside soldiers in an effort to ensure a more humane routine. The human rights organizations are the state's pride, not a threat that must be liquidated or minimized.<ref>Editorial, 'Who is for the state, and who is against?', Haaretz, 8 March, 2006, accessed 14 March, 2006.</ref>
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Footnotes

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Further reading

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