Weekly Digest 6.1.08-12.1.08

Bethlehem
Area

 Sunday AM, 30.12.07
06:55 Bethlehem CP: Many people outside, even more waiting
inside. 5 booths open, but one at least had computer problems, and crossing is
slow. On the Palestinian side: The gate opened at 05:00, then closed at 05:30 for
half an hour at least, and this continued on and off, hence the crowding. The
CO said he couldn't do anything about it. So, many workers were going to be late
for work, the hours subtracted from their pay. 
Many probably just went back home, since it doesn't pay to be late.
08:45 Ezyon DCL: Many people ask our advice, but
not many petitioners. The waiting room was one-fifth full, the weather outside
was beautiful and as we stood there enjoying the sun, many people came up to us
as if we were an information service. We tried to do the best we could.

Tuesday PM, 1.1.08
Bethlehem CP. 
We boarded bus 163 to Rachel's tomb. The bus winds around the wall,
which blocks all views. Rachel's is like a fortress, in view of 3 gigantic
watch towers. Inside, all the windows are shaded so one cannot even look
outside. One feels entrapped in a darkened corridor. There were about 50 people
visiting while we were there, in addition to an army unit stationed in the
area, on an educational tour. A BP would not allow us outside the Tomb area,
for fear of snipers.

Wednesday PM, 2.1.08
Even though it is a few days after the
murder of the 2 soldiers from Qiryat Arba, there is no military presence to
speak of on route 60.  Last Wednesday at
the same time the road was replete with military vehicles.
Ezyon DCL, 15:30: 
A few people waiting for their various papers. They did not seem to need
or want our help. Nobody was manning the police window. One Palestinian told us
the window is only manned on Sundays, but we are not sure this is so.  A sign in Hebrew and English said there would
be no police services tomorrow, 3.1.08, and the window would reopen on Sunday
at 11am.  But at 3:30pm today there were
none either. Nor magnetic card services. "Go away, come tomorrow",
said the soldier at the turnstile window to a waiting Palestinian, who meekly
left.  "Why are you closed at 3:30?",
we asked. "Because there are no soldiers around".  "Why are 
there no soldiers around?", we asked.  "I'm not allowed to talk to you",
ended the conversation.
There are many signs, mostly in Arabic,
all over the DCL walls.  One says that
the opening hours are 9:00-17:00.  Another,
which we couldn't read, says: 
8:00-16:30, and underneath, 8:30-17:30. The telephone number prominently
displayed in the large poster does not answer. 
Not today.  Not last week.  Not ever.
Bethlehem CP: 
2 long and orderly lines stretch from the street and  into the CP. 
A civilian guard, dressed just like a soldier, lets people in 5 at a
time.  5 booths are open, and passage is
smooth and swift.  We timed passage from
arrival to crossing at 10 minutes. A bus was entering Bethlehem from the vehicle
CP.  It had "TAGLIT" written on
it.  We wondered who the passengers were.

Thursday AM, 3.1.08, 05:30-07:00
Bethlehem CP, Israeli side.  A woman soldier in the second window, talks
all the time on her cell phone, and is rude to the Palestinians. 5 windows
open, and no pressure. On the other side we rely on others' reports. The CP
opened at 5:00 and at 6am an official opened an additional window.

Abu Dis Area
Monday AM, 31.12.07
06:30 
There are other places besides CPs where BP and  Police check Palestinians coming to work in
Jerusalem.  The largest  group is usually at the junction of Route 1,
Prophets st.  and  the 
parking lot of Nablus road.  We
walk around there, talking to the workers. 
Most seem to have permits or blue IDs.
07:30  Container CP. Some yellow mini busses are being
checked.  It is fast, and no one seems
perturbed anymore. Most cars are not stopped. A tractor which traveled without
"permission" from the soldiers, is called back, and told to wait, to
teach him the rules of the game around here. Our intervention fails.

Monday PM, 31.12.07, 14:00-18:00
Sheikh Saed. 
We went to mean a woman with a blue ID and a man with a green ID who had
been told yesterday that they would be allowed to enter the village, but not to
exit. The BP in charge said he had to call for permission to let us in, which
took a while. The intricacies of the problems facing those residents were
explained in great detail. The woman, a teacher in Jebel Mukaber, needs 1.5
hours to get to work in the morning, because every permit is being scrupulously
checked. She and the children leave their homes at 06:30 to wait in line (rain
and shine) to exit and board their school bus; including children with special
needs and on crutches. A white scooter bike serves as the local ambulance. It
belongs to one of the blue ID inhabitants who transports those unable to walk
to an ambulance, which is not allowed to enter. One man had died after a heart
attack while being resuscitated at the CP.
Container CP. Checking is random, but too slow:  over 20 minutes to pass by the BP, who were
in helmets and flak-jackets. We were told firmly to move away and take cover.
The queue of pedestrian workers returning home proceeded rather slowly too,
alongside the turnstiles and the magnometers, which were probably out of order.

Qalandiya Area

Tuesday PM, 1.1.08
Approaching Qalandiya from route 443, we
were stuck in a long queue caused by the Atarot CP, which is located at a very
sensitive spot. Laborers returning from work in Israel to Ramallah must pass
here before reaching Qalandiya CP.  The
BP always discover  "illegals"
(i.e., workers who reside illegally in Israel, trying to make a day's
earnings). Indeed, we saw 3 detainees: 2 young laborers and one middle aged
man.The 2 young detainees were waiting for an officer to decide their fate. But
we had problems understand why the middle aged man, who was the driver of a car
with an Israeli license number, was detained. 
"Please, don't leave me!" he implored.  It turns out he is a church administrator and
lives in a church in Jerusalem. On the New Year a good friend visited him and
asked him for a favor, to fetch his wife and daughter from Atarot. They were
indeed in the car, along with the wife's mother, who lacked a permit. Therefore
the man was guilty of driving an "illegal"! The soldier had already
called for his officer. We were sure he would let them go. But no. The old
lady, who almost could not walk and was very lightly dressed, had to leave the
car, had to be led by her son-in-law to the BP Jeep and climb into it. We were
aghast. The car with the rest of the family was released, but we insisted to
know what will happen to the old lady. At last the soldier shouted: "She
will be released!  They drive her to
Qalandiya where she will be released!" The 2 young laborers had to sign a
form where they admit to have been illegally in Jerusalem.
Qalandiya CP, 17:10. 
Rush hour was over and there was a regular flow of people. At the car
crossing the traffic was slow. No dogs in action. We lined up at the pedestrians'
queue. Only one line was operating and we had to wait 20 minutes. While waiting
we heard the instructions of the soldiers from the checking booths.
"Jacket  fil machina",  "Wahad, wahad" "Hey, you, go
back to the metal detector", "What about the belt?" Basically
Hebrew with several Arabic words. It was difficult to understand.

Thursday AM, 3.1.08
06.35 Anata. 
Traffic flows, random checking, no children (why?). 2 detained women are
thoroughly checked, including physical touching by a woman soldier. They
bypassed the CP, and will be taken for interrogation.
07.20 Lille. 
A line of 20 cars, moving quickly. We are told that since last week, no
Israeli may go through that segment of road, which is area A, because 2 weeks
ago an Israeli driver was stoned there. The irony is that at the other end of
that road there was no soldier to stop Israelis going in the other direction.
07.50 Qalandiya. 
In spite of the late hour there was a huge crowd at the external
turnstiles. However, within less than 10 minutes everyone  passed. Vehicles moved slowly but steadily. A
civilian guard stood by with a  dog.

 Nablus Area

Sunday, 30.12.07, PM
16:00–17:45, Beit Furiq. We rushed there after repeated phone calls of drivers
waiting to exit Nablus for over 3 hours. They tell us about 40 vehicles are
waiting in line, and the line does not move. They just stand there and wait. 5
cars coming from Beit Furiq Nablus-bound; the end of the waiting line of cars
exiting Nablus is far out of our eyes' reach. Two soldiers check vehicles on
the one lane, two soldiers check the pedestrians on the other vehicle lane.
Pedestrian passage is rather swift.
Vehicles
coming into Nablus from Beit Furiq are being checked at about 5 minutes per
car. After 10 minutes, the soldiers turn to check cars exiting Nablus. Checking
time per car is 4-7 minutes. Simple optimistic arithmetic – hoping the soldiers
work swiftly – 4 minutes times 50 cars = 3 hours and 20 minutes for the cars already
waiting. This is the best-case scenario. 
We kept calling the DCL, who promised to help but…  16:25. Two army vehicles arrive. Help?  No. 
Door thrown
open and 3 young men from Beit Furiq are taken out (18-19 years old), heir hands
plastic-cuffed behind their backs, and blindfolded. All checks cease until all
soldiers have stared at them from up close. The three, "documented as
stone-throwers" are seated aggressively inside the detainee pen, one in
every corner, on the floor, though there is a bench there that could seat them
all.  After 5 minutes another vehicle
arrives. Two senior officers look around and ask "Why isn't another lane
opened?"
16:40. Cuffs
and blindfolds removed.
16:45. Finally,
vehicles are checked in both lanes. The two officers join the checking forces
and the pace is doubled and even tripled. Another  50 minutes and the line from this direction is
gone.
17:15. It gets
dark and very cold. The car from Beit Furiq waiting to go into Nablus has
already been waiting for an hour as first in line.
17:20. The
officers leave. Soldiers check cars from Beit Furiq. The time has doubled
again.
17:30. The
detainees wait for the police. The freezing concrete chases them off to seek
seating on the bench but when the soldier nearby notices that, he sends them
back to sit on the concrete floor. And again and again. On our way home, a
mother of one the boys will phone us and tell us she brought them coats and
blankets but the checkpoint commander would not let her pass them to the boys.
Pedestrians
report about 20 vehicles still waiting to exit Nablus. We count another 7
waiting to enter from Beit Furiq. The policy has blurred us too and we run out
of the presence of mind required to calculate how much longer people in both
directions will have to wait until they may get home.

Sunday, 30.12.07, PM
14:20, Beit Iba. Three detainees. The commander, Y., tells us that
two of them were caught trying to go round the checkpoint; one is wanted by the
GSS (General Security Service). A few minutes later, one of the men is
released. A long line of young men coming from Nablus are buzzed through 1-2 at
a time.  They are made to put everything
on a table or on a board by the newly installed magnometer. Their pockets are
turned out, everything manhandled, the soldiers taking everything out of
briefcases and backpacks themselves. 
Next, the Palestinians pass through the magnometer, but then have to
return for their things.
15:00. No
checking at all for pedestrians coming from Deir Sharaf. On the other hand, the
humanitarian line from Nablus is long, and the soldier checks them thoroughly
and in desultory fashion.

Sunday, 30.12.07, PM
15:00, Zaatara (Tapuach) Junction. Empty of vehicles.
In Huwwara
market people report that recently, late on various nights, a colonist arrives
in his pickup truck and throws havoc, smashing car windshields and windows of
local businesses. People have appealed to the Border Patrol men that frequent
the town who said they'd look into it and didn't do a thing.
Yitzhar Junction. Unmanned. On our way back it is
manned, keeping nearly 30 cars waiting in line.
15:15, Huwwara. A detainee held in the concrete cell, his hands
cuffed behind his back, waiting for GSS (General Security Service)
interrogation. Three checking posts active. The humanitarian line proceeds
rapidly. Soldiers are busy mainly fighting the bitter cold with loud, unceasing
joking, playing around and merrymaking. Pedestrian traffic is slighter than
usual at this time of day.
Vehicles
entering Nablus accumulate and some of the time are even inspected, unlike the
usual routine.
Two young men
tell us they were caught working in Israel and taken for interrogation. There
policemen confiscated a cellular phone of one of the two men, an act later
denied. They were both handcuffed, and at their release, the policemen couldn't
open the metal cuffs of one of them with the key, and had to cut the chain
open. The two were then taken to the Kfar Qassem CP (Shaarei Shomron) and had
to proceed on foot, without any money, and one of them with a steel cuff on
each wrist… The CP emptied nearly completely by 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, 3.1.08, PM
15:00–16:40, Beit Iba. The CP is practically empty. Last night there was an
Israeli military maneuver in Nablus. We are told by a friend who lives in
Nablus that there is a curfew in some parts of the city.
Eleven
vehicles are on line to Nablus, five from Nablus; there are very few
pedestrians. The humanitarian line is open. Later on, when workers are
returning home, there is a special booth opened for the incoming pedestrians to
be checked.

Tulkarm
Area

Sunday, 30.12.07, PM
13:05, Qalqilya. All vehicles, about eight in line, Israeli as well
as Palestinian, stream through speedily.
15:30, Anabta. From Tulkarm, the line of vehicles is endless; we can count no
further than 25. Cars are checked sporadically. Most cars with Israeli plates
speed by, and IDs are also indiscriminately checked. Minibuses or semitrailers
seem to be stopped at random, both peered into. Pedestrians on their way to
Tulkarm, line up, automatically, along the concrete walkways provided.
Gate 753. It’s busy here as people go in
and out of the village, and each vehicle and pedestrian is checked.

Thursday, 3.1.08, PM
14:00, Jubara village. We enter by opening the gate – this is forbidden to
the villagers themselves, who can only go through the Children’s Gate. Donkey
driven wagons seem to be the most prevalent mode of transportation in Jubara,
other then walking.
Ar-Ras. Change of guard, and the soldiers
start some kind of combat exercise. While this is going on, the number of cars
from Tulkarm is lining up. Vehicles coming from Qalqilya are not stopped and
pass through freely.
14:22. The
combat exercise is completed, the change of guard is over, and the checking of
vehicles starts again. Only one vehicle is stopped to be checked thoroughly.
The other vehicles are stopped just to ask where they are going and are then
waved on.

Hebron Area

Sunday AM, 30.12.07, 06:30-9:15
Sansana
(Meitar) CP,
06:40 The Palestinians complained about Friday PM opening hours. The CP closes
at 13:00, and afterwards they must get home via Tarqumia.  Those that want to work in Israel on
Saturdays cannot, because the CP is closed. 
About 100 workers waiting outside the turnstile, 20
more in the passage leading in.  10 minutes
after we arrived the queue began to move. At 07:10 it was nearly gone, but new
groups of workers were still arriving. A new whim of the checkers: No one
carrying a bag is allowed through. One worker is sent back, because he is
carrying an airline bag. The workers told us others had already gone home,
after being denied passage. "Can't we bring work clothes with us?" It
turned out that this was an unauthorized local initiative, and it was reversed.
Route 35. Is it no longer an apartheid road?  We saw several private Palestinian cars on
route 35 (as on route 60)

Thursday AM, 3.1.08
06:00. 
Tarqumiya - Many workers in line, even extending
outside the covered area.  No delays. The
workers reported that they waited 15-30 minutes.