Women

Translator:  Charles K.

14:55  A’anin checkpoint
Four tractors and a few people wait in the rain and cold.  The soldiers open the checkpoint gates exactly at 15:00; people cross quickly.  The driver of the tractor, who told us that 26 farmers from A’anin are allowed to cross through the Shaked-Tura checkpoint when the A’anin checkpoint is closed (cf. report from 29.12.11), said he’d received a new agricultural permit and even took advantage of the opportunity to cross through the Tura checkpoint.  He said he was even allowed to go through in his car, which shortens the trip from A’anin to the checkpoint from an hour and a half (by tractor) to 25 minutes (by car).  He doesn’t know whether other farmers from A’anin crossed at Tura.

15:25  Shaked-Tura checkpoint
Little traffic at this hour, either vehicles or pedestrians.

A resident of Tura whose home is located right next to the checkpoint is employed there as a janitor by a Palestinian company.  He cleans six checkpoints, from Jubara near Tulkarm to Shaked-Tura, and earns only NIS 2000/month and NIS 700 car allowance.  He has land in the seam zone but usually gets a permit only during the olive harvest.  His brother has a shop in Barta’a, but he can’t a permit to work and remain there.  He’s allowed to enter the seam zone only as far as the concrete barriers before the checkpoint.  He says he isn’t granted a permit because he objected to the demolition of a porch and uprooting of cypress trees in front of his house when the separation fence was erected.  His opposition succeeded; the fence was erected without damaging the porch or the trees, but his freedom of movement and income were curtailed.

16:00  Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint, the seam zone side
A pickup truck and a few cars wait to cross to the seam zone.

Laborers come down through the fenced corridor and immediately go through the terminal.  Beautiful, proud female students return from class on the West Bank.  Two guys carry a large carton containing a 42” flat-screen TV.  The gate is opened for them because of the TV set, so they don’t have to go through the revolving gate.  But an old woman carrying two large sacks doesn’t get the same treatment; people on line help her take her sacks through the revolving gate.  Some families with small children cross in either direction, perhaps because schools are on vacation.  Three children on their way to the West Bank are trapped in the revolving gate.  Their mother remained behind.  In response to our request, the person conducting the inspections released the gate and let the mother in as well.

When two windows are open in the terminal, there’s almost no line.  When the terminal is congested, at about 16:30, and one of the windows closes for a short time, a line of 30-40 people forms.  Our phone call to the person in charge apparently helps; the second window reopens and the line quickly disappears.

17:00  We leave the checkpoint as the laborers continue to come down through the fenced corridor, many carrying sacks of oranges.  The scent of citrus is intoxicating.

Translation: Ruth Fleishman

We were last in line, waiting for the turnstiles to open so that we could pass into the inner inspection area. Neither we nor the people before us had noticed that the soldiers' post had been abandoned and the revolving mechanism was disconnected. Only one child who had passed through the gate before his mother had, stood on the other side, all alone, there was no going forward or backward. The child was entrapped.
During the first moments the child smiled with embarrassment, and then the smile was replaced by a worried gaze. He brought his body closer to his mother who was standing on the other side of the metal bars, took her hand and grabbed it tightly like a life preserving anchor.
The Palestinians, who are used to the arbitrariness by which the place is run, moved to the parallel inspection lane with acceptance. We stayed with the mother, cetin that within a minute or two the problem would be resolved. After all everything that happens in the checkpoint is filmed and broadcasted live to the plasma screens of those who run the site.
We were wrong.

The tears that started streaming down the cheeks of the child caused us to hurry and make some calls. We thought that as soon as we inform the hot lines the child would be released.
We were wrong again.

They all gave us the same answer: "I'm making inquiries".
We called again: "I'm making inquiries".
After twenty minutes, after having promised the mother and her son that "any moment now…"- "they will just look at their camera and someone will come and press the button…", "But I've only now explained to them, they are making inquiries and it will all be alright…", we understood that there was no telling how long the child will remain entrapped and detached from his mother, and Roni went to the parallel lane to request the help of the soldier sitting there, while I stayed with the mother and kept trying to talk to the people at the hot lines who over and over again could understand and connected me with the officer in charge, who also didn't understand and we ended up having an incomprehensive dialog.
-    The officer: "what is the name of his mother?"
-    Me: "I don't know"
-    The officer: "how will I identify him?"
-    Me: "He has two legs… why do you need to identify him?- just let go!!"
-    The officer: "wait, I don't understand, explain again, is he in the red zone?- where does he want to go to?"

Nearly thirty minutes later a solider from the offices was sent to press the releasing button. But before pressing he insisted on explaining that actually: "the child is to blame. He shouldn't have passed to the other side on his own". Not only was it the victims fault, but it was possible to prolong his suffering and put forth the occupier's narrative.

No one believes the Palestinians. That's why they are always equipped with a bundle of documents that prove their disabilities, their situation and their very existence.
Such was the 71 year old person from Jerusalem, a disabled and sick man who has difficulty walking and waiting in the cramped lines of Qalandiya only makes it harder for him.
The man presented before us his disability certificate, as proof of his bad health and told us how he is mistreated at the passage for residents of Jerusalem, where in spite regulations that allow the disabled elderly and pregnant women to remain seated in the bus, he is force to come down, walk to the pedestrians' checkpoint, stand in line, pass the turnstiles and be inspected (again) by the soldier.
"Write down what I'm telling you. Write it down"- he asked.

Translated by Jenny L.

Route 60

Strong winds blowing; very little traffic on Route 60. At the foot of Beit Haggai, the entrance to the southern approaches to Hebron has for some time been blocked with stone blocks. In the last year they also added a barbed wire fence, as if anyone could get through this blockade. This morning the fence has been folded back to the side of the road and soldiers in an armored vehicle are on guard there. "Who or what are you guarding?" "We don't know," they answer.

We decided today to travel in the direction of Tekoa, which means turning east at the entrance to Sa'ir and to continue on to Tekoa, toward Jerusalem. We went into Hebron on the way back.

Route 3517 - Route 3670

The road is pretty and silent. A section of it is in fact the continuation of Route 356. Further on, the road leading according to the sign to the veteran settlements Meizad/Asphar which looks to be well established and not far from it, the settlement 'Pnei Kedem', where they are still living in caravans. On a hilltop nearby caravans are to be seen, which aroused our interest. The track was very rough and fearing for our vehicle, our driver parked at the side of the road. All at once we noticed a group of soldiers at the top of the hill. We approached them, in the hope of getting answers to our questions. They are reserve soldiers, tolerant and smiling. "Ah, you're from Machsom Watch!! I'm for you!" exclaims the reservist with the biggest smile.  "No. I didn't mean that, I'm just fooling around. On the contrary!" he continues. "What are you doing here," we ask. "Guarding the road" "What is there to guard?" "That there won't be any problems, any penetrations," they reply. "What's on the hill?" we ask. "We don't know," they answer.  "Good and obedient" soldiers like these draw out our anger about the occupation.  They quietly listen without saying anything. They explain where the settlements seen on the sign are to be found and we drive on to see them. They are located on hills at a high elevation from which all the surroundings can be seen. The military base is located immediately adjoing Meizad. Again we see the symbiosis the authorities have so cleverly created. The fact is again evident that everyone in these places is here with the Government's blessing. The signs indicate that the road continues to the Etzion Bloc.

We returned to the road leading to Tekoa, all the village road signs are primarily to Jewish settlements. Almost all their neighbors, in their villages since time immemorial, might as well be invisible. They don't exist on the map. We continued on to the southern approaches of Jerusalem. The Har Homa neighborhood stands out like a thorn on the landscape. We returned to Route 60.

Hebron

At the entrance to Kiryiat Arba, the guard again, for the thousandth time, requests ID from M. our driver. And yet again we too insist on presenting our IDs. Again a phone call is made to notify our arrival.  The Golani flags are blowing in the wind. Again and again we see "Gideon Family" emblazed on their ensignia. In the city itself, the soldiers have hung posters: "The Lions of Wrath". This is what they call themselves.

We had arranged to meet someone who for eight years has been trying without success to obtain a permit to work in Israel. We gave him the relevant information and were again forced to remark that it wasn't at all certain that we could help him. Our sense of helplessness is a constant source of despair.

Because it was so late, we were "fortunate" enough to see a group of female teachers at the Tarpat checkpoint on their way back to H2. A soldier is trying to direct them to go through the magnometer. They refuse. To our joy, he "remembers" that it's permitted to allow people to go home without being checked and he opens the gate. An exchange of looks between us, small signs of victory exchanged between the women and us, and they turn to go home. "Such happiness."

I

03:50 at dawn

– Irtah

We waited on the other side of the layers of fences which close in the electrical turnstiles area.

The women stood, as usual in the last year, in a separate queue. An open sided shelter leaning on thin pillars had been built above part of the fence-a covering lane leading from the building on the other side to the last part of the enclosure lane. This is the part that approaches the exit by way of the electrical turnstiles to a yard which leads to the checking facility.  The part over which the shelter had been built is constructed in a straight line, while the part which isn't covered and in which many people crowd before passing, is built as a zigzag winding lane.

The CP was opened at four o'clock.The women passed only in the second round of outgoing personsn.

On the other side of the checking facility only two posts for document checking were manned at the beginning and a quarter of an hour later approximately 4 were manned. From this stage on the tempo of the men and women's passage increased very much: 120 in three minutes. Almost all the women were elderly and the few  young women, were like in the former instances we observed, dark skinned. The average age of the people passing at Irtah seemed a bit higher that of the people passing through the Eyal CP. After a long period in which more people passed through Eyal, it seems that there is a process of equalization in the number of people passing, which perhaps is the result of more orderly procedures at the Irtah CP.

A reinforcement of this assumption can be found in the fact that people said that owing to the greater number of persons wanting now to pass through Irtah, they arrive very early, to ensure that they pass in time in order to reach their workplaces. As a rule they have to be there between six and six thirty. As compared to a former period during which we observed the CP, the women did not gather in groups at the margins of the field where they came out from the checking installation, but almost all of them tried to pass quickly, almost at a run, and then walked quite a distance along the road which doesn't have any marked edges, to the place there they would wait for their employers who were due to fetch them.

CP Architecture: In the meantime a passage with a very very high covering shed, which is probably intended for cars. On its side there is a building with three opening for offices. At another part of the CP area one can see beyond the surrounding fences two big sheds whose roofs are tent cloth.

05:00 Eyal

When we arrived there were already very many people who passed the CP and crowded in the waiting area of sat on the low fences along the exit road of the vehicles, and waited for their transportation.

Here too a shed had been built, this time on the part adjoining the turnstile for leaving the checking installation. This shed enables a certain crowding for a few moments when it rains, but doesn't change at all the great distance people have to pass exposed to wind and rain in order to reach the taxis which transport them from there.

We tried to get permission to obsderve the entrance to the CP Lane which was forbidden to us at the Eyal CP.  We didn't succeed.  A worker of the security company explained to us with an expression of somebody who seeks "only what is good" that there is a plan for the improvement of the passage conditions. The building of more shed etc. We referred a person who was prevented by the General Security Service, to Silvia.

An absolutely ordinary colonial abuse day.

Translator:  Charles K.

Meitar crossing

By 6:45 the Palestinian side was already empty of workers; they’re waiting on the Israeli side for their employers and are on their way to work.

Route 60 is quiet and deserted.

We reached the Kvasim junction without delay, but not before we tried to understand what had happened at Beit Haggai and beyond.

We slowed down, assuming, and hoping, that wherever the soldiers are they’re checking cars more carefully, and we wanted them to become familiar with ours [if they hadn’t noted it earlier], so there wouldn’t be any mistakes…

We didn’t see an army presence there today either.  No soldiers came down from pillboxes anywhere along the way.

Hebron

It’s quiet, many children on their way to school.

Many representatives of peace groups and TIPH at every checkpoint.

They’re all monitoring the children’s crossings.

The soldiers don’t detain anyone; all pass through the scanner without anyone interfering.

A group of teachers who live near the Cordova school are on their way there.  They don’t have to go through the checkpoint.  The others continue to make a long detour to avoid going through the scanner.  Neither side compromised its principles.

CPT activists remind us that this Saturday a special event will be held because of the “Hayyei Sara” torah portion.  Another “Jewish exception” day on which everyone’s invited to come pray at the Cave of the Patriarchs to commemorate the death and burial of Sarah the matriarch.  On that day, the Hebron settlers invite [even more enthusiastically than usual] everyone to demonstrate their right to possess the entire land, and Hebron in particular.  The peace groups express their fear that the settlers will be more aggressive to the Palestinians that day.  We hope not, but ask them to call us if necessary.

Since nothing out of the ordinary was going on, and the occupation routine was demoralizing as ever, we could leave Hebron early.  We decide to continue on Route 60 to Beit Umar.  The road was lovely, pastoral.  The vineyards were glorious in their autumn colors.  What a misleading landscape.

The pillboxes rise all along the way; the army’s presence has also increased, starting from Karmei Tzur.  The observation balloon floats above Beit Umar.

We turn left at the Gush Etzion junction, toward the Jaba checkpoint.  It’s manned by the military police.  We wonder how long they’ll be there.  For some reason, the soldiers are much more flexible, less strict.  They “make do” with asking where we’re coming from, a quick, superficial inspection of our ID cards, and “cause no trouble.”  The crossing was “pleasant.”  From there we drove through the Elah Valley to Highway 6, and then home.

What a “lovely trip” we had.