MK (National Union) Dr. Aryeh Eldad expressed his inability to continue tolerating the ongoing activities of the Machsom Watch organization, which monitors IDF checkpoints to document any injustices or human rights violations against Arabs. The organization on many occasions has been documented as volunteers interfered with the duties of soldiers manning checkpoints, frequently under very harsh conditions. The volunteers are also known to incite provocations against soldiers, encouraging Arabs at checkpoints to challenge instructions.

As far as Eldad is concerned, the organization presents a serious security risk and he intends to request an urgent meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak in the hope of putting the organization out of business.

There are many documented accounts of Machsom Watch volunteers inciting against soldiers, calling them defamatory names in the hope of sparking them to respond inappropriately, then documenting the response to use against the IDF.

One of the more infamous cases was a border policeman who was murdered at Kalandia Checkpoint on the northern Jerusalem border, a particularly difficult checkpoint due to the thousands upon thousands of PA residents passing through daily. The victim had his throat slashed, eliciting a response from a Machsom Watch volunteer, who said “he deserved it,” due to the maltreatment of the PA citizens by the IDF soldiers.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)