This paper discusses activities of Machsom Watch, a human rights organization of Israeli women who visit checkpoints in occupied West Bank daily to monitor army's operation of checkpoints and intervene when possible. The paper examines presence of Israeli women at checkpoints vis-a-vis both Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians, and it explores some gendered aspects of occupation, as manifested in checkpoints and in activities of Machsom Watch. The soldier barked at my mother give me your ID, and I saw her search- ing for it in her handbag. Then he grimaced and exclaimed half-jokingly, you are detained. The place was a checkpoint known as the container at end of Sawahra, a Palestinian village east of Jerusalem. This particu- lar checkpoint controls all movement of Palestinians from southern Bantustans of Bethlehem and Hebron to east (Jericho and Jordan) and northern Bantustans of Ramallah, Nablus, and Jenin. The time was shortly after assassination of Hamas leader sheikh Ahmed Yassin (March 2004), so out of fear of revenge, Israel put entire West Bank under a five-week closure until after Israel's independence day. Closure means movement is severely restricted, so there was very little traffic at checkpoint that day, and bored soldiers were having fun with us. There was nothing exceptional about this scene - which thousands of Palestinians experience daily - except for fact that we are not Palestin- ians but Israeli women. My mother belongs to an organization of Israeli women called Machsom Watch,1 an organization of women who go to checkpoints primarily to witness, document, and report what hap- pens there, but also to try and help ease passage for Palestinians. The checkpoints represent most immediate contact Palestinians have with Israeli soldiers, and as all Palestinian movement is restricted by Israeli army, they represent daily and often humiliating friction between Palestinian population and Israeli occupation machine. Members of Machsom Watch (MW) hold different political positions, but they all oppose Israeli occupation and see situation at checkpoints as a violation of basic human rights, and more pragmati- cally, as an incitement to hate on behalf of a collectively punished Pal- estinian population. MW started operating in Jerusalem in winter of