WEST BANK CHECKPOINT NUMBERS CASE PROBED
Mohammed Daraghmeh, Associated Press, 4/29/03

NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli soldiers have written numbers in ink on the
hands of hundreds of Palestinians waiting at a crowded West Bank military
checkpoint, several of the people marked said Monday.

The army confirmed the incident but said it was done by a lone soldier who
acted on his own and would face a disciplinary hearing.

Palestinians with three-digit numbers scribbled on their palms said they
told the soldiers they considered the practice degrading, but they were
given a choice to either turn back or submit to the marking.

A similar incident happened in March 2001 when soldiers marked numbers on
the foreheads and forearms of Palestinian detainees awaiting interrogation
during an army sweep of a West Bank refugee camp.

At the time, the action drew outrage from an Israeli lawmaker who survived
the Holocaust, and the practice was halted. During World War II, Nazi
concentration camp inmates, most of them Jews, had numbers tattooed on
their forearms...

Arabic language professor Hamdi Jabali and insurance agent Wael Dwaikat
were among those in line.

"A soldier came and told me, 'Give me your hand,'" Jabali, 46, said. "I
said, 'Why?' and he said, 'I want to write a number on your hand.' I told
him, 'This is not human. We use this only for animals,' and he told me 'If
you don't want it you can go back.'"

Jabali, who was given the number 125, said some of the 100 or so people
waiting in front of him when he arrived at 8 a.m. turned back instead of
accepting the numbers...

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