Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim), Sun 6.3.11, Morning
04:04
The PA announces they’re starting to work. The first “clump” of about 50 people crosses immediately. The number of older women is noticeable. The path to the facility is crowded, but not jammed. We walk to the exit
04:11
The first laborers exit. People come out quickly, almost flowing out
04:40
We return to the entrance. The line moves forward in quiet submission. We hear the guard: “One at a time, one at a time, forward, back, come on, come on,” over and over…
The sign with the picture of an anemone, “The hope of us all,” is gone
A laborer is stopped when the x-ray machine beeps – we hear the loud questioning…”Why didn’t you say you had tuna when I asked,” etc., etc. But he also goes through a few minutes later
05:30
More laborers keep arriving but the line thins out
Two laborers return; they weren’t allowed to cross because their fingerprints didn’t match. That sometimes happens because of manual labor; they have to go to the DCO.
06:00
All the laborers went through
Hundreds of laborers are still waiting outside for their employers. Their fear of being delayed in the inspection rooms makes them arrive hours before they are to be picked up, hours of valuable sleep
06:10
We leave. For a moment we feel this has been an easy, quick morning, but immediately realize that it’s not a question of easy and quick, but that the occupation has become a permanent regime
Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
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The checkpoint is for Palestinians only. It is the main barrier to the passage of workers from the northern West Bank to Israel. Workers with a permit to work in Israel and also for trade (with appropriate permissions), medicine, and visiting prisoners. One can cross the checkpoint only on foot. The checkpoint is located north of Road 557 and south of Tulkarm. Operated by a civil security company, opening hours: between 4:00 and 19:00 on weekdays. As members of Machsom Watch, we began our shifts to this location in 2007. We arrived before it opened at 4 in the morning and report since, on the harsh conditions and the long and crowded queues of workers. The workers who pass by continue their journey by transportation to work throughout Israel. In the first period of its activity, about 3,000 and then 5,000 people passed through this checkpoint every day. Due to the small number of checking points and arbitrary delays for long periods of time in the "rooms", workers feared losing their transportation. Hence workers leave their homes at 2:30 at night to be among the first. Today, 15,000 pass and the transition is faster. Workers are still leaving their homes very early to get past the checkpoint at 7 p.m. In an adjacent compound, there is a terminal for the transfer of goods on a commercial scale, using the back-to-back method.
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