Hebron, West Bank-- There is a checkpoint on the border of the Palestinian
controlled area of Hebron and the Israeli Occupied zone. One afternoon,
Cliff Kindy, Pierre Shantz, and I arrived at the checkpoint to find five to
ten Israeli soldiers checking almost every Palestinian car passing through
the checkpoint. A car check consists of soldiers checking the driver's I.D.
and insurance, then physically searching the car and opening any bags or
boxes they find.

I began taking pictures-- close-ups of the soldiers. After a few minutes,
one soldier looked up and said, "I'm not doing anything wrong."

I responded, "I will leave that up to the people who see these
pictures to make their own decisions."

"You know, I could be doing a lot worse. Why are you taking pictures of
this? This is nothing. Much worse happens," he stated.

"When I talk to North Americans about the situation in Hebron, I explain
there are many levels of violence. I consider this low-level harassment.
Look what you are doing. You are stopping innocent civilians for no
reason-- making them wait for 15- 30 minutes while you check cars," I said.

He stepped a bit closer to me and said in a serious tone, "I don't like to do
this, believe me, but I have to follow orders. I can not tell you why, but
we have our reasons for stopping Arabs today."

Our conversation continued for quite awhile, each of us giving our
political opinions. He explained that before he entered the
army, he had volunteered with political parties that were working for peace.
I asked him if he is still involved with them. He responded, "No, because
there will be no peace in our time. We cannot trust the Arabs. They lie.
Arabs are liars. They lie without even realizing they are lying."

"I live in the Arab market and have many Palestinian friends. It has been my
experience that they are very honest," I said. We continued to talk for
another ten minutes when I looked up and noticed that Pierre and Cliff were
also engaged in deep conversations with the other four soldiers present.

All the soldiers were busy talking to us were no longer stopping cars and
checking I.D.s. The soldier who was talking to Cliff also realized what
was going on and said, "Maybe this is the way to peace, through talking."