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No Israeli can skirt his responsibility for the acts of the IDF in the territories - acts that have long since ceased to be aberrations, but are instead the fruits of consistent and systematic policy. "Detail," the impressive new video work by filmmaker Avi Mugrabi, documents how anonymous soldiers sitting in a scary-looking jeep abuse a woman who is carrying a small child in her arms and is trying to cross a checkpoint east of Nablus. Her husband, who pleads with the soldiers and tells them that his wife is bleeding, is turned away with coarse language too. For three hours, the woman is made to stand in the blazing sun, the child in her arms, her face pale, while the soldiers speak to her from the jeep using a loudspeaker, as though they were dealing with an animal herd. This scene, which is played out daily, is also done in our name.
The optimists among the human rights activists in Israel believe that the day will come when those who are responsible for Israel's brutal behavior in the territories will be brought to justice. Whether it will take the form of a South Africa-style "truth and reconciliation committee" or a trial before an international court, those who have abused a defenseless civilian population for so many years will be brought to account, the optimists insist.
But even if this vision is realized, no one will be able to escape the collective responsibility. In our silence, in our indifference and in the overwhelming fact that it's all being done in our name, we are all soldiers at checkpoints.
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