Page 51 - Why Israel?

WHY ISRAEL 45
Since the beginning of the modern concept of national borders, every country in the world has imposed restrictions and screening who is allowed in and out of their country. Israel is no different.
A common misconception is that Israeli checkpoints are designed to punish the Palestinian people and make their transit between areas controlled by Israelis and Palestinians more diffi- cult. In fact, Israel’s military and border police follow strict codes of conduct in order to be as respectful as possible while keeping the process as efficient and smooth as can safely be allowed. IDF commanders work hard to emphasize to their soldiers stationed at the checkpoints that soldiers are not to demonize or stereotype all Palestinians as terrorists, and do their best to emphasize that the vast majority of Palestinians their soldiers will encounter are peaceful.
Israel also goes out of its way to be as respectful as possible to the Islamic customs of Palestinians. For example, they keep bomb sniffing dogs as far away as possible. Israeli soldiers have been asked not to eat, smoke, or drink in front of Palestinians during the holy fast of Ramadan.
Unfortunately, Israel routinely discovers Palestinians attempting to smuggle weapons through checkpoints, hidden in things as seemingly innocuous as a can of potato chips. Many times, soldiers or police officers manning the check points find themselves attacked with knives, rocks, or motor vehicles. Yet they are under strict instructions not to respond with lethal force unless absolutely necessary.
In recent years, Israel reduced the number of checkpoints and tried to streamline the process even more to accommodate the large numbers of Palestinians who enter Israel every day for work or medical care. On average, 60,000 Palestinians enter Israel through border crossings every day. In 2017, 15 million Palestinians crossed into Israel. Contrary to popular miscon- ception, Israel is not keeping the Palestinian people trapped, and border crossings are only closed temporarily during times of heightened risk.