© Aseel Baidoun
Aseel Baidoun and Amir Malhees
The attack happened on April 26th. Aseel Baidoun, 28, and her husband Ameer Malhees, 27, and their friend Wisam were on their way from their home in Ramallah to a friend's engagement in Bethlehem.
Aseel, who works with the World Health Organization, was driving their car, while Ameer, a musician, sat in the passenger seat. It was routine for the couple when driving outside Ramallah:
Baidoun, a Jerusalem ID holder, had to drive her "yellow-plated" Israeli vehicle, as her husband, a West Bank ID holder, is not legally allowed to do so.
Due to Malhees and Wisam's West Bank IDs, they are also not allowed to travel through Jerusalem to Bethlehem - a trip that takes about half the traveling time as driving through the winding, single-lane highways of the West Bank.
It was inconvenient, yes, but like thousands of others they had done it countless times before.
So when the group approached the Israeli military "container" checkpoint separating the northern and southern West Bank, they followed the routine, and slowly approached the through lane, guarded by several soldiers.
"They waved at me to stop my car, probably because it was yellow license plates," Baidoun told Mondoweiss. She said it was a regular occurrence when she drove in her car; it was nothing out of the ordinary. "They signaled for me to go to a different lane, away from the Palestinian cars. So we took the other lane and stopped," Baidoun said.
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