Anyone arriving at the checkpoint – and it's not a crossing point between Israel and the Occupied Territories – anyone there is out to get to work, not to carry out a terrorist attack at the checkpoint. My company was assigned to several checkpoints. I did checkpoint duty as a soldier myself. Say a person would come to the checkpoint in order to get to work, but the sanctions and limitations and chaos that took place until they finally crossed were terribly frustrating (…) The saddest situation, as I see things, is at the checkpoints. These have always been and will always be the army's weak point. A checkpoint is where, as a soldier, you're most vulnerable to what's going on around you. You are supposed to regulate the traffic of pedestrians and vehicles and in the long run it does not work. The soldiers' fatigue, the routine at the checkpoint, accommodation of everything going on and the lack of alertness, and when there's that as well as boredom, guys begin to horse around. Surprisingly enough, this began with commanders. They started playing all sorts of stupid games; getting people out of vehicles. We had a checkpoint in our area. All kinds of stupid games. Make them (Palestinians) wait for two-three hours inside, in the car. Get out, stay in, drink, eat, never mind. Whether it was detaining people, or preventing people from crossing without any specific reason. Whoever crosses there, I mean it's so transparent – was then, I don't know what it's like now – obviously the terrorist, or the guy disguised as a woman, will not cross there. There are a thousand and one ways to get through.

Were there cases of harassment at the checkpoints?Yes, soldiers would play with them. You know, the saddest thing was when detainees would get there. Okay, perhaps the guy's suspect, I don't think I'm too humane or human or anything, but the hours they had to stand there tied up, shackled, until they'd get anything, and they'd be shut up in some room, with everyone (soldiers) coming to stare at them.

On what grounds would people be detained?At the checkpoint itself, people would be detained because of their ID. Someone is allowed to pass, not allowed to pass, his permit is still valid, it's not valid, that sort of thing. Seems suspect, doesn't seem suspect. Soldiers detain. At the checkpoint, it's the commander's judgment that counts. At the end of training when there are (junior) commanders missing in the company, you're short of manpower, the company slowly begins to fall apart. So as an outstanding measure, confirmed by the battalion commander, we were allowed to authorize task-commanders, soldiers who would be in charge of the checkpoint for the duration of a shift. This was accommodating for everyone. For the commanders it was convenient, they had more options this way, less tasks, soldiers would feel more responsible. But posting soldiers on their own at the checkpoint, taking care of things by themselves, easily replacing each other – is a problem. It opens up possibilities, and we are to blame, we really have no idea what goes on there. Whoever places soldiers with other soldiers and expects things to turn out fine, or even worse – whoever authorizes malfunctioning commanders – and they're commanders for all practical purposes - they end up crossing the line. They run deals, letting a guy through because he gave them some food, bread from the village, stuff like that. One of our commanders, a real idiot, would only let them through this way. Soldiers would buy, or rather take, cigarettes from them. Ask them for cigarettes - people with whom you're not supposed to relate at all, and there you go demanding a gift from them as a condition for letting them through the checkpoint. That's totally crossing the line, and it didn't bother anyone. "I'm the checkpoint, I say what's what." When we discovered this, we began to talk and try to prevent it, but you cannot really prevent something you cannot control, because you're not there on the spot, and when people did not have the kind of integrity that prevents such dealings. . . so they did it.