What is a checkpost (a flying checkpoint)? When did you get a chance to do a checkpost?We have patrols in an armored vehicle throughout the sector, and in principle every time you do one of these shifts you have to do at least one checkpost. We’re told that the point of the checkpost, it’s something relatively knew that we were told, I was only told this toward the end of my service, you’re given a page with the vehicle’s license plate, driver’s phone number and ID, and the goal broadly is to fill it in. The larger goal is to fill out the pages and [only] then search the vehicles.

And what do you do with the pages?You pass these pages on to the division or the brigade, and they pass it on so that they have a database, because up till then they still had no database.

How do you know this?That's what they told us.

Let’s continue with the checkpost.That’s what we did largely. We set up the... at the exits from the village, mostly Husan or Nahalin usually, and that’s it.

At the entrance too? I’m asking if you check both vehicles going in and going out?Both. I checked both entry sometimes, and exit.

What’s the rationale for checking at the entrance?That again, sometimes it’s just a check that has the primary aim of [filling in the] pages, so it doesn’t matter if it’s at the entry or at the exit.

Were you told what the purpose of the checkposts is?There was a larger purpose which I think is the pages. That’s also what the company commander or the platoon commander told us: [If] you do the checkpost without filling in the pages – it’s not really important, you haven’t done anything. The second purpose is to check the vehicles and see that there’s nothing dangerous in them, that everything is in order. But the primary task broadly was filling in the pages. That’s how they defined it to us it. Most of the soldiers couldn’t understand why, if we’re already doing a checkpost and setting up a checkpoint, then [why] is the purpose to build a database with the information we’ve collected?

What actually is the purpose of the pages?They’re passed on to the division, and then the division ultimately has a picture of a specific person with his ID, his phone number, the vehicle he apparently drives, type of vehicle, color of vehicle and license plate, direction of travel.

Was the purpose of this data collection explained to you?They said that there is just a big gap in intelligence, even though we’ve been in Judea and Samaria for a long time. There’s a gap and now we are making an effort to close this gap.

Was there a quota?I had to do 30 vehicles per shift. Often it was increased to “Do 100 today.” You can’t end your shift before you’ve done 30 vehicles. For all kinds of other situations, [there were] other numbers.

And then what do you do if it’s like half an hour to the end of your shift and you haven’t met your target?Wait until I finish the job.

The question is whether you do checkposts in order to meet your target?Yes.

Would every patrol do a checkpost?Yes. And [also] night patrols.

So you make these lists for a month in the same places.After two weeks we had the same people and we still kept going.

How does it feel to do it, when you’re at a point where you’re already doing the same names again?I feel like we’re in some kind of show ultimately, because both the people going through the checkpost and I can already recognize each other after two weeks of seeing each other every day. We all smile a little just to get through it and not turn it into like an ugly scene. It happened a number of times that we recognized each other and said let’s get through this quickly for both of us.

If it is a person you recognize you’ve already written down, do you still write it down again?[I] write it down.