The commander of the Reihan Checkpoint in the Shechem (Nablus) region wrote a letter of complaint against the Mahsom Watch (MW) women, stating as follows:
"A truck driver [arrived and] refused to stop; he attempted to run us down, and then... blocked the crossing. During the incident, one of the MW women followed me around, kept on writing the whole time to psychologically encourage the driver, and said she would file a complaint against me. By regulations, I should have arrested the driver, but I didn’t do it because of her."
The commander addressed his letter to the IDF Chief of Staff, the head of the IDF Personnel Corps, the Central Region Commander, the Samaria/Judea Region Commander, and the regional police chief.
A group called "Women in Blue and White" recently took upon themselves to help out the soldiers thanklessly staffing the checkpoints in the Shechem area. Arutz-7's Ruti Avraham reports that the soldiers were grateful for the cakes and drinks, but soon made it clear that they needed help of a different nature. "What they needed was help in how to deal with the MW women," Mrs. Yael Snir told Avraham, "who were interfering with the soldiers' work and thus endangering Israeli citizens."
The Women in Blue and White spoke with soldiers at the checkpoint and wrote up their accounts. Excerpts:
Soldier: "The MW women come here every day, and say to the people [Arabs] waiting at the checkpoint or those who we detain, 'Do what you want, these soldiers are nothing to you. Jus pass and that's it.'"
Another soldier: "They usually don't let us check [the Arabs]. It's my job to check, to make sure they're not transferring explosives, but [these women] fire up the atmosphere, thereby causing the checks to be quick and superficial."
Another soldier: "They say that if we don't talk to them, they'll file a complaint. But we received an order not to talk to them, because if we do, they'll find something in what we say to file a complaint about..."
Commander: "They have filed six complaints against soldiers at this checkpoint. Even though I was told informally that the complaints were not serious, they still serve to reduce our authority in the eyes of the populace."
One soldier told the Women in Blue and White, "Thanks for coming, because everyone else is against us."
A senior commander who arrived at the checkpoint said unambiguously, "I agree that the MW women's involvement at the checkpoint increases the danger to the soldiers' lives."
A female soldier: "We had a case where a man suffered a heart attack and died at the checkpoint. We did everything we could for him, and of course called an ambulance – but the next day we read in the paper that we were careless of human life, and that in general we are unconcerned with human life. I'm a left-winger myself, but I don't understand how it is possible to say these negative things about our soldiers."
"A truck driver [arrived and] refused to stop; he attempted to run us down, and then... blocked the crossing. During the incident, one of the MW women followed me around, kept on writing the whole time to psychologically encourage the driver, and said she would file a complaint against me. By regulations, I should have arrested the driver, but I didn’t do it because of her."
The commander addressed his letter to the IDF Chief of Staff, the head of the IDF Personnel Corps, the Central Region Commander, the Samaria/Judea Region Commander, and the regional police chief.
A group called "Women in Blue and White" recently took upon themselves to help out the soldiers thanklessly staffing the checkpoints in the Shechem area. Arutz-7's Ruti Avraham reports that the soldiers were grateful for the cakes and drinks, but soon made it clear that they needed help of a different nature. "What they needed was help in how to deal with the MW women," Mrs. Yael Snir told Avraham, "who were interfering with the soldiers' work and thus endangering Israeli citizens."
The Women in Blue and White spoke with soldiers at the checkpoint and wrote up their accounts. Excerpts:
Soldier: "The MW women come here every day, and say to the people [Arabs] waiting at the checkpoint or those who we detain, 'Do what you want, these soldiers are nothing to you. Jus pass and that's it.'"
Another soldier: "They usually don't let us check [the Arabs]. It's my job to check, to make sure they're not transferring explosives, but [these women] fire up the atmosphere, thereby causing the checks to be quick and superficial."
Another soldier: "They say that if we don't talk to them, they'll file a complaint. But we received an order not to talk to them, because if we do, they'll find something in what we say to file a complaint about..."
Commander: "They have filed six complaints against soldiers at this checkpoint. Even though I was told informally that the complaints were not serious, they still serve to reduce our authority in the eyes of the populace."
One soldier told the Women in Blue and White, "Thanks for coming, because everyone else is against us."
A senior commander who arrived at the checkpoint said unambiguously, "I agree that the MW women's involvement at the checkpoint increases the danger to the soldiers' lives."
A female soldier: "We had a case where a man suffered a heart attack and died at the checkpoint. We did everything we could for him, and of course called an ambulance – but the next day we read in the paper that we were careless of human life, and that in general we are unconcerned with human life. I'm a left-winger myself, but I don't understand how it is possible to say these negative things about our soldiers."