Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

People are working.

Irtach –

03:45-04:45

At 03:40 we arrived at the Irtach checkpoint.  On the way we saw cars entering the area of the Eyal checkpoint.

On the “Palestinian” side of the checkpoint, beyond the fences, under the canopy built a few months ago, there are now food and coffee stands.  From a distance we can see plastic sheeting hung to protect customers from the wind and rain coming from the side.

The checkpoint opens at 04:05.  About 40 people went through the revolving gate each time it opened.  The first wave consisted mainly of men, the second mainly women, most young.  Later we saw older women entering a few at a time.

Around 04:30 the electric revolving gate at the exit from the inspection building stopped operating, and the doors also closed for about five minutes.  People said someone didn’t go where he was told inside the building.  All in all, people go through pretty quickly.

Skilled workers earn significantly more than agricultural laborers, NIS 300-350/day.  Transportation costs NIS 36 round-trip, and they pay the labor contractor NIS 1000/month.  People at Eyal also confirmed that amount.

Eyal  05:00-05:40

When we arrived the large parking lot was already jammed with vehicles picking up workers.  People came out through the revolving gates fairly quickly.  The canopy above the exit lane from the inspections has been extended an additional 20 meters.  It seems to us that more people are crossing through Irtach, and somewhat fewer through Eyal.  At 05:10 about 400 people arranged themselves in long lines between the parked cars to pray, and many of those coming out of the inspections joined them at various stages.  But many people didn’t join them and continued what they were doing – smoking, eating, drinking coffee.

A person who approached us exemplified again what’s written in the booklet about people blacklisted from entering Israel -  more than 30 years old, with children, no history of involvement in resistance, forbidden from entering Israel without understanding why. 

Agricultural laborers receive NIS 150/day.  They also pay NIS 1000/month to the labor contractor.  They told us that some of the contractors under-report the number of workdays to the Employment Service and pocket the difference.  The person we were speaking with referred to a labor contractor from Haifa with an office in Netanya who has 400 people employed through him!!  We asked what happens if someone is injured on the job.  They said that usually an ambulance is called, and medical expenses are covered, but they also knew of cases where people who were hurt were expelled to the West Bank without having been treated.

As you remember, buses transporting relatives of prisoners to visits in Israeli jails go through the Eyal checkpoint accompanied by Red Cross representatives.  It seems that’s why the government has invested in cleaning up and decorating portions of the checkpoint that are off limits both to the laborers and to us.  There’s a round plaza on which venerable olive trees have been planted (which must have been stolen from someone), along with boulders for decoration.  Yesterday all that was illuminated by colored lights – red, green, blue, purple.  Thus shall the state do with the checkpoint it wishes to glorify.

We tried to get permission to see the other side – the entrance to the checkpoint – but we couldn’t.

13:00 Habla

The weather was rainy when we arrived before 13:00 and there were already many more Palestinians waiting than usual for this time.  Several said that they had been waiting a couple of hours, probably got off work early because of the weather.  One young fellow told me that he lives only on the other side of the gate, pointing to his house, a few minute walk and he had to wait 2 hours.

The army jeep finally arrives at 13:15, by this time there were even more people, I must say that they were in good spirits and a very cheerful attitude.  There were several donkeys and carts transporting mattresses, blankets to beautiful flowers. The soldiers worked quickly and within 40 minutes most of the people had passed to either side of the gate.

There was a flow of vehicles on the road considering the weather, but not many military vehicles.

15:35 Irtah

As we approached the entrance to the terminal we saw the people entering through the terminal, I was surprised because the gate on the side is usually open in the afternoons so the people can walk directly out without being checked.  After several minutes a guard comes out of the facility and opens the outer gate so everyone can walk directly to the other side.  I inquired why it was closed before, he said because they have to check “a certain population”.  This was unclear to me, but the guard assured me that they know who this population is. 

13:00 Habla

We arrived at 13:00 and surprisingly the gate was open and functioning.  Not many people passing, maybe because of the holiday, Christmas, today is a holiday (no work and school) in the West Bank.

'13:40 Azzun

People waiting at the entrance for a taxi, not much traffic on the road.

13:55 Deir Sharaf

Business in the mini market and the green grocer, but everyone else on holiday.

14:30 Irtah

The few workers returning passed with no problems.

13:00 Habla

We arrived at 13:00 and surprisingly the gate was open and functioning.  Not many people passing, maybe because of the holiday, Christmas, today is a holiday (no work and school) in the West Bank.

13:40 'Azzun

People waiting at the entrance for a taxi, not much traffic on the road                    

13:55 Deir Sharaf

Business carries on in the mini market and  at the green grocer, but everyone else is on holiday

14:30 Irtah

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.

Habla

7:02 –

We arrived.  The gate is closed.  A military vehicle arrived at the same time we did.  About 20 people were already waiting on the village side.  A cart and driver waited from the direction of the plant nursery.  A few minutes later one of the soldiers standing on the road along the fence turns to the driver of the cart, asking “00”?  The driver nods, the soldiers waves “Yalla, come on, come on.”

For some strange reason, the notice in the plastic sleeve listing the hours the checkpoint is open hangs on the gate nearest to the plant nurseries, but the text faces Habla.  And if someone coming from the village wants to read what’s on the sign, he’ll need binoculars.

7:13 –

The people from Habla begin to be let in, in groups of 5.  Drivers, bicycles, horse and donkey carts – all cross that way.  Five reach the revolving gate to the inspection installation, wait one by one at the revolving gate for their turn, enter the inspection room and exit again in a group after 3-4 minutes.  People in one of the groups complained that the female soldier conducting the inspection keeps eating and wasting time while carrying out the inspection.  The bus with the girls arrives just about now, and the boys’ bus a short time later.  The first bus crossed at 7:22.

8:01 –

We left.

Qalqilya – 8:11 – We passed what had been the Qalqilya checkpoint.  No soldiers.  Nadim said that there had been soldiers at the entrance this past Sunday.

Azzun – 8:18 – Open.  On Sunday a military vehicle stood at the entrance to the locality.

8:28 –

A military vehicle stands between Jinsafut and Funduq, soldiers next to it, but we saw no cars or people detained.

8:35 –

A military vehicle parked at the Jit junction, toward Beit Iba.  No cars or people detained; a military vehicle near the turn to Yizhar/Burin, a spike barrier across the road, soldiers standing next to it.  Cars stopped for inspection.  We continued toward Sara and then to Qusin.  Only the concrete barriers marking the lanes remain at what was once the Beit Iba checkpoint.  As if the massive investment in equipment, fortification and maintaining the notorious checkpoint had never occurred.  The road from where the checkpoint once stood to Deir Sharaf is still an obstacle course, filled with potholes, and it looks like additional quarries have been established gnawing away at the hills on both sides.

We continued toward the Anabta checkpoint.  There the equipment is still in place.  We saw no traffic to or from Tulkarm.  We saw no soldiers, but according to the rumors they’re observing from the pillbox.

9:17 –

At the Jubara checkpoint - “Te’anim crossing” in Newspeak – we cross the “border” without stopping.  On the roadside, next to Abu Hatem’s house, is heavy construction equipment and we already see mounds of earth.  Apparently they’re laying a road to relocate the separation fence so that Jubara will again be connected to the West Bank.

We entered the parking area at the Irtach checkpoint.  A metal structure that looks like a kind of bridge has been erected on the security road next to the inspection station.  A fence stretches from it to a gate that can prevent access to the revolving gates through which people coming from Irtach enter the installation.  We learned that it’s to inspect vehicles purchased in Israel.  And it looks like this checkpoint is competing for one of the top places in the competition for “the most beautiful garden.”  Drip irrigation and a rock garden have also been installed near the area of concrete barriers next to the area where cars pick up laborers in the morning.

9:34 –

We left.

13:00 Habla

The gate is still shut. There is a considerable number of people waiting, as well as carts and vehicles. It seems that in the beginning of the week the traffic around the gate is livelier than on the other days of the week.

13:11

The gate is opened late. The two gates (the northern and the southern) are opened simultaneously.A minor relief. Two Palestinians, out of their own initiative, improve the moorings of the open gates. Today the checking is not very lengthy. Yet three men are ordered with excessive resoluteness to retreat a few steps. As usual the people pass to be checked in groups of five. The children's bus passes at 13:20.

13:30 Azzun

No military presence at all, neither Israeli nor Palestinian.

13:45 Jiyus

We look for the southern Jiyus gate which is open between 13:45 to 14:00. A., a local, comes to help us. In his great kindness he joins the car as a guide. The unpaved road passes hidden in an olive grove. Without him it wouldn't have been exposed. He shows us the remainders of the former separation fence which has been moved as a result of a high court of justice decision. A.: "Many olive trees have been uprooted here for the fence. Without end. Don't ask. You have an ugly government. Will only make war. I don't know the name of the gate (Jiyus south) I don't want to know it. I have an authorization. I threw it away. I tore it up. The truth is that your ugly government is not interested in peace at all. (introduces a local lad) . They took his papers away. In order to pressurize him to work for the general security services. They want him to be a collaborator. You don't understand anything that goes on here. As if you Israelis have come from…I have no words in Hebrew to explain. (perhaps he wanted to say "as if you came from the moon"), nothing can be achieved under pressure." By the way, A. categorically ignored the repeated remark: "but your condition has bettered since the high court of justice ruled about the shifting of the fence". No. He is not grateful at all. What he remembers is the sight of the uprooted olives.

14:40

, Anabta CP – Prepare your occupation for the winter

The CP is closed because the road is being repaired, for fear of flooding in the rainy season. The road is hermetically closed. Here they do not act according to the custom of the rest of the world – enabling the passage of cars alternately. An Israeli Palestinian hisses: "they have no feeling. Why did they close the road altogether? Why, aren't there human beings here?" The road is closed for eight days. In order to arrive at their destination the drivers have to drive by way of a defective earth road. Not all vehicles are able to do that.  

15:00

Shuffa, The blockage is like a thorn in one's side 

The turning to Shuffa is decorated with Israeli flags, very proud ones, although there is no holiday and no Shabbat today. We meet Mr. Abu Ala, the head of the village since five years. Before he used to be a teacher in the local school. Near the obstruction blockage, which divides the village into two parts, we learn a lesson about the rules of communication under occupation. Taxis on both sides of the blockage coordinate by telephone. From lower Shuffa a group of beautiful young girl arrives. Eleven passengers crowd into the taxi to upper Shuffa, besides the baby in his mother's arms. Owing to our ignorance of Arabic, we rely on the assistance of a man from Tul Karem who mediates between us and Mr. Abu Ala. In order to reach work they are obliged to perform a detour of 20 Kms. Children go to school and from school twice a day (a distance of about five Kms in each direction). They do it hot days and in cold ones. They don't have the means to pay for 4 taxi fares a day. The serious problem in Shuffa is the blockage. The segmentation of the village tears families apart, prevent family relations, lengthens trips and makes them more expensive, separates people from their lands,cuts livelihood off. The blockage is made because of the Avney Hefetz settlement. The man from Tul Karem says: "the road is blocked since the first intifada. During the Ramadan month this year the road was opened for the first time for a whole month. There were no problems. Avney Hefetz exist here ten years. We – thousand. This road exists for thousand years. "

Although this matter has been discussed in the past, it is impossible not to dwell on it. Like Carthage, the Shuffa blockage must be demolished.

P., a man from Shuffa tells us that he received a demolition order. He built his house without a permit, because no permits are given. The building of the house was completed six years ago. Two months ago he got the demolition order. He was told: "if you have papers – bring them. If not – get out." He received a week's span. 

People tell us furthermore that they were ordered to uproot all the crops in a certain area. "They don't want anybody working his land."

16:00 –

Irtah, Sha'ar Ephraim

A building drive. Here too they prepare for the winter – awnings were build above the market that takes place in the passage itself. A building that has been erected a short time ago is intended for the trade in second hand vehicles. It seems a lively trade is taking place between the inhabitants of the occupied territories and their occupiers.

The stream of returning people doesn't stop. It is the hour at which workmen return to their homes. The passage path is also being repaired and therefore, according to the security person, they again pass through the building on their way back home.

__._,_.___

Summary
The October 2011 reports of the United Nation’s (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Occupied Palestinian Territories (OCHOA), began either with “Fast Facts” or “Key Issues.” Both headings speak to an Occupation that is even more horrible than in the past. “Israeli forces injured 22 Palestinians throughout the OPT. Settlers injured another three Palestinians and vandalized around 250 trees. Israeli authorities demolished 26 Palestinian-owned structures, mainly including residential tents and water cisterns in “Area C,” where Israel retains control over security as well as planning and zoning. And all this throughout the OPT where already half a million Israelis live, and where Israel, in A.B. Yehoshua’s words, “nibbles” at the territory of the Palestinians where, in fact it is “plundering and infringing the very essence of the inhabitants’ identity.” What hope is there for a Palestinian state in such an environment?

Habla, Gate 1392
13:02 – the mess created by the change, in Israel, but not in Palestine, from daylight savings time last week, seems to have worked itself out. The same, we are told, could be said about the change from the IDF to a privately contracted firm to be on duty at Sha’ar Eliahu (Gate 109) where the checking , we are told, is a little less arduous than last week, but where Palestinians are treated very differently, surprise, surprise, from Israelis. These conversations go on while all wait for the gate/checkpoint to open. A soldier comes out to the waiting Palestinians, about a dozen of them, to say, “in two minutes.”

13:06 – again, surprise, surprise, the two minutes is, in fact, five when a Hummer arrives bringing the rest of those scheduled, including the Military Policewoman who again makes her presence felt here.

13:15 – the same people waiting here before 13:00, including the lady who offered us fresh “lubia” (freshly picked beans), still wait.

13:25 – only now do most of the waiting people get through. Shortly afterwards, the school bus comes by, carrying the cheerful Bedouin school kids (boys today) on their way home. We notice, not for the first time, that the bus, this school year, is much smaller than before. We wonder if this hasn’t to do with the number of homes that have been pulled down from the area near Alfei Menashe, in which case, those children probably no longer go to school in Habla.

13:30 – Separation Barrier near the ’Enclave’ around Alfei Menashe
Once again the gate here, facing us, is open, again no work on the new road being created by Israel near the Barrier, and we note that the flags are still flying at the little hamlet which is surrounded on all sides by Israel’s so-called “protective measures,” but which, in actual fact, give license for the settlement of Alfei Menashe to expand and attain contiguity with the nearby Green Line.
Qalqiliya
Free flowing traffic, no police or military
Route 55
All quiet today, few military or police vehicles around. At Azzun, we note, once again, that the flags that flew so proudly the day Abu Mazen returned to Ramallah from the UN General Assembly are no more. Individual flags, perhaps, for those who are brave enough to withstand the punishment of the Occupiers, but at the official level, say, the Municipality of Azzun, no way can they deal with the harassment and humiliation which has surely made them remove the colorful bunting and the flags from the central roundabout in this town.

Beit Iba
There are works going on at the former checkpoint, and rather than leaping to conclusions, we realize that the rocky road leading to Deir Sharaf is probably also caused by infrastructure works, maybe new sewers (and not the recreation of the infamous checkpoint).

Shavei Shomron
No checkpoint, no police or military in sight. Just the usual busy traffic making its way onward to Jenin.

14:30 Deir Sharaf
The DCO was “good enough,” we learn, to call the local Council to tell the Palestinian landowners that they had from 9-13 October to pick their own olives in the olive groves just south of the Shavei Shomron settlement. So, today, the second day of Israeli-authorized olive picking – from lands many of which were, years ago, stolen from local families, some  are indeed picking olives, but, once again this year, in their words, “It’s only half a harvest.” Only two brothers of the M. family are picking olives where once, maybe four or five years ago, some of us joined the many brothers and sisters, the aging mother and a variety of youngsters. S., the man selling vegetables and fruits from a cart, shows the meager picking of his harvest. Half a sack load where once he had sixty. He goes on to tell us of the scourge of wild boars that descend on the village after nightfall, the boars having been set upon the village of Deir Sharaf, by the Israelis, at the start of the Second Intifada, and boars, as most people know, eat everything and make life exceedingly difficult – but that’s the idea of this Occupation.

On the way to Anabta and Jubara, nothing to report, and at the Figs Gate, all our IDs or passports are checked or rather looked quizzically by an uncommunicative military policeman, our trunk checked. Business as usual.

15:30 Irtah/Sha’ar Efraim
Surprise, surprise, the guard, whom we already know, more or less welcomes us, telling us that Palestinians are no longer checked on their return from work as they make their way back home, but that we can’t join them. To Tulkarm, we wonder? And he tells of the delicious food, particularly the hummus that he’s eaten there. A mad world.

The many, many men returning from work are cheerful, and often have greetings for the four of us. One woman whom we’ve known from the Habla gate now tells of her great joy in coming through this “terminal” as she now has a job (plus, of course, a permit) to work in another town in Israel proper. The usual cheerfulness and friendliness of the Palestinian workers is heartwarming. 

 About 200 Palestinians wait for the opening of the gate.

03:55  The turnstyles open. Groups of about 70 enter, until the turnstyles are locked again for half a minute, and then re-open.  The passage is quick.

04:00 Loudspeaker:  "Good morning, beginning work".

About 04:07 we already see the first people coming out on the Israeli side and going to their transport.

04:15  Two turnstyles in constant operation.  People arrive and immediately go through, relaxed, staying in line from the turnstyle to the magnometer;  certainly not running or pushing as we have seen here in the last couple of days.  The problem of a separate line for woman seems to have solved itself:  there simply aren't so many people, so body to body contact is avoided.

04:25  Dozens of people continuously arrive (in yellow taxis).  By 4:30, 1293 men have gone through, 71 women.  That is a large number for half an hour! The parking lot on the Israeli side is full of people and taxis.  Also on the Palestinian side, the parking lot fills up with the private cars of the people going through.

04:45  Heavy crowd.  Hundreds of people wait on the Palestinian side, go through quite quickly.  Now groups of 30-40 go through and the turnstyles close once in a while for a number of minutes.

04:55  100 people pass through and then it is closed again for 5 minutes.

04:30-5:00  973 men and 31 women went through. The youth from the guard company is pretty polite, quiet (not barking out orders all the time as sometimes happens here).  He asks to go through with bags at the magnometer, except for troublemakers...

05:00 -05:30  936 men and 8 women went through.  The pressure decreases.  From 5:30 until we left at 6:30, another 960 and 8 women had gone through. Altogether, this morning by 6:30 about 4300 men and women, more than I have ever counted, went through. Maybe this is because they are not letting workers through at all at Eliyahu Gate?  and this forces them to go by way of Eyal and Irtach? 

Summary

Although we, the women of MachsomWatch, try to shine light on the evils of occupation, we are only too aware that the occupied, the oppressed, the Palestinians rarely make the headlines, let alone the media. Yet, for more than a week, Palestine has been the center of international attention. Whether the shadows will once again obscure the evils of occupation remains to be seen, so it is up to us, those of us who venture to occupied territory, to Palestine, to continue to highlight violations of human rights and focus on the day to day abominations of occupation. Yet, today, the day Abu Mazen returned to Ramallah from the United Nations General Assembly, it would be inexcusable, no, unfeeling  of us not to highlight the proudly waving symbol of Palestine’s liberty and freedom atop so many  buildings and decorating the many roadways we passed by on our shift.

12:50 Habla

More problems have been created lately at Gate 1392, although rumors that it would be closed in October appear to be unfounded. Every day, there appears to be “something new,” put into place by soldiers on duty and  meaning rules and regulations, probably not emanating from high up but made up on the spot by those same soldiers on duty.

13:10 At the gate itself, one solider, one military policeman and one Hummer, joined soon by a jeep and soldiers which soon triple the numbers guarding this agricultural gate. We see the son of the greengrocer who has walked to the concrete house to have his permit, etc. checked, returns to his truck on the Habla side of the Security Barrier and is made to lift up its canvas sides for “checking.” This is a man who crosses here several times a day, and, sure enough, ten minutes later, he returns to cross back to Habla. Again his empty truck is checked, and the same rigmarole goes on and on and on.

We question the soldiers, politely, as to why almost all of them are wearing something around their right ankle, a padded looking “protection” of some sort, or a place to  conceal something, maybe a knife? We are left guessing as the answer we receive from the commander, a captain, is that it it is to protect the knee (just the right knee, mind you, and yet so far from the target)!!

13:45 on route 55, the first of many blue Police is seen. This one has pulled over a car bearing Israeli license plates (yellow) and police are questioning a couple of young men. All this before the gas station and the junction to Alfei Menashe.

At the junction, at the turnoff to the settlement, an armored blue police Hummer.

On the road leading to the Security Barrier and to Alfei Menashe, we see that more Bedouin shacks have been pulled down, the homes of many human beings now a mere pile of rubble. Yet, signs of life: on our return from Gate 1360, at 14:00. The green school bus is letting off the elementary school kids that we usually see at the Habla agricultural gate.

Gate 1360

Once again, the gate on the “Israeli” side of the Separation barrier is open, but the many gates on the other side are firmly locked. As we peer across the Separation Barrier, we spy a flag waving in the breeze, high atop the opposite hill. It’s not been there before: yes, it’s the Palestinian flag, and there are many more that we now observe in the village below, flying from private homes, sometimes three at a time.

Route 55

14:10 “Welcome to Eliahu Crossing Point” shouts a new sign in three languages. There is much action at this new and enlarged checkpoint which has been privatized and seems to be run by the same company as at Irtah (Sha’ar Efraim – same uniforms). The welcome is made manifest by Border Police and blue Police, working in tandem, stopping many cars coming from Israel proper. Note: MW should stop and monitor here in the future.

14:15 Qalqiliya

No prize for guessing: more blue Police, and we note that Israeli cars (yellow license plates) bearing Palestinian Israelis -- women with hijabs -- have been stopped. We should probably monitor here in the future too.

Nabi Elias and Azzun both display Palestinian flags and bunting, and there are flags also alongside Route 55, except in the areas of settlements where the blue and white flag flies as if it’s Israeli Independence Day (which usually falls in May)! More Palestinian flags at the junction of the road going to Ariel, via Immanuel, more in Funduk, Israeli flags outside Quedumim, Palestinian flags at Jit village, Israeli flags at Jit Junction and again at the Junctions of Routes 57 and 60…..These observations clearly deserve a graph or a more graphic description than mere words….

14:45 Shavei Shomron

An armored blue police Hummer, one blue policeman, one solider. The policeman is crudely brusque and commanding, “Turn around and get out…..this is Area A, only security and the army can come here.”

On question: what is the blue Israeli police doing guarding checkpoints today in cahoots with the army?

Deir Sharaf

Here there are not only Palestinian flags but tee shirts and a flag bearing “Palestine 194 UN.”A small crowd of men is absorbed in watching, on the television, Abu Mazen’s joyous return to the Muquata in Ramallah. People are happy although the food delivery man filling the coolers with salads (Israeli salads) mentions that he was beaten by Border Police last Wednesday in Huwwara, and others confirmed rumors of Palestinians being fined for bearing Palestinian flags on their cars. During our whole shift, we saw only one such flag on a car, but many dozens on houses and along roadways.

Anabta

We can’t help but note that Area A which has not figured prominently on signs in the past couple of years seems to have appeared once again on these red signs, often fixed to large concrete boulders.  No soldiers visible at Anabta, and the next flags spotted were at Avne Hefetz (Israeli settlement).

15:25 Jubara

The trunk of the car is checked by a gaggle of military police people, and other than a new brightly colored canvas shelter for soldiers guarding the Tulkarm exit checkpoint, northing else to report.

15:35 Irtah (Sh’ar Efraim)

Here we listen to stories of harassment and of waiting for hours to enter Israel in the early morning hours. We note that the packing case that has been placed on the far side of the turnstile leading back home for the Palestinian workers has been joined by a large load of building material, strategically placed in front of the turnstile – just a mere new obstacle! Dozens and dozens of men returning home, many bearing sweetly smelling guavas being sold by an enterprising driver at the entrance to the stop off area. One can’t help but notice the general bonhomie and good mood of the Palestinians. They have achieved much in the past week in spite of the continuation of this endless occupation. 

.