Machsom Watch
|
|
Machsom Watch is an human rights organization composed exclusively of Israeli women. In English, the group is also known as "Women for Human Rights". Their stated aims are to "monitor the behaviour 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 our observations to the widest possible audience, from the decision-making level to that of the general public".
The word "machsom" is Hebrew for "checkpoint", in reference to the many checkpoints maintained by Israel in the West Bank.
Machsom Watch was founded in 2001 by Ronnee Jaeger, Adi Kuntsman, and Yehudit Keshet in response to concerns about reports of human rights abuses against Palestinians at IDF and border police checkpoints. Machsom Watch also expresses concern about the effect on civilians of the siege of West Bank communities by Israeli military authorities reacting to the Al Aqsa Intifada.
Ronnee Jaeger is an activist with long history of protesting human rights abuses in Guatemala and Mexico. Adi Kuntsman is a feminist intellectual originally from the Soviet Union, who arrived in Israel in 1990. Yehudit Keshet was an Orthodox Jew and scholar of Talmudic ethics, although she has abandoned Orthodoxy.
At the beginning of 2004, Machsom Watch had approximately 400 members. Early on, Machsom Watch had some male monitors but that didn't work out. According to Keshet, "Their relationship [with the soldiers] was totally different. They were horrified by what was going on, but at the same time they bonded with the troops." [Hammer, 2004, 40]
In March 2004, Machsom Watch received the Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award. This annual prize is given by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel "to an individual or NGO that has made a unique contribution to the advancement of human rights in Israel". Conversely, Nadia Metar, co-chair of the right-wing Israeli Women in Green calls them "fifth columnists who collaborate with the Arab enemy". [Hammer, 2004, 38-39]
Reference
- Hammer, Joshua, "Grandmothers on Guard". Mother Jones, November/December 2004, 36-41.
External links
- Machsom Watch home page (http://www.machsomwatch.org/)
- Press articles about Machsom Watch (http://amoselkana.com/mWatch/eng/media.asp)
- Checkpoint photos by Eyah Dor-Ofer (http://www.pbase.com/gallery?gallery_id=2715180) some including Machsom Watch volunteers