Machsom Watch monitors several Israeli checkpoints every morning and afternoon during the periods of highest traffic to protest the checkpoints and to protect the rights of individual Palestinians who must pass through them. All of the volunteers for Machsom Watch (machsom means checkpoint in Hebrew) are Israeli women.  The organization began in January 2001 with 3 women, and has since grown to 300 volunteers.  

Monitors view the checkpoints as a violations of human rights, restricting the right to free movement and hence the rights to education, medical treatment, and the right to work for Palestinians. The monitors perform three primary functions at the checkpoints: They prevent abuses at the checkpoints, they document abuses that they witness and they show solidarity with the Palestinian people.