A creative Palestinian answer to Israeli checkpoints

The Israeli army has placed barricades at the entrances to Palestinian villages and towns in recent weeks. One crane operator figured out a way to help out stranded motorists.

The Israel army has been utilizing collective punishment against entire Palestinian cities and villages in recent months as a response to a wave of attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.

One of the most common tactics, in addition to demolishing attackers’ families’ homes, is to seal off entire villages for a few days or longer after an attack.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been at various times over the past few weeks unable to leave their villages, towns and cities for work, school, travel, family visits, medical care.

Of course, as American industrialist Henry Kaiser once said, “problems are only opportunities in work clothes.” If you happen to have access to industrial equipment, that is.

One truck-mounted crane operator decided to help out stranded motorists by lifting cars over the Israeli military barrier blocking the entrance to a southern West Bank town in the Hebron area. (It’s not clear which.)

According to several news outlets, the crane operator was charging NIS 30 to move a car from one side of the barrier to the other. +972 could not immediately verify that detail, however.

The photo above was posted by a Facebook page called City of Hebron, which appears to be run by Radio Shabab.

To learn more about Israel’s use of collective punishment in recent months, read Amjad Iraqi’s analysis of the practice, which he describes as a national addiction.

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