Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim)
A black morning in the wake of the elections.
Zakariya, the laborer who just went through the revolving gate, gave Dorit, the guest from far away, a flower and said: It’s not from me, but on behalf of all the laborers…
I left at 04:30 for my shift at Irtah with Dorit, the guest from Los Angeles, and we saw Irtah renovated: a parking lot for cars, winding entry lanes for the “flock”, covered and appearing more orderly. But it seems the way through them is arranged so they wind around until the exit and occasionally we see young men making their way by climbing on the railings and over them to cut in line.
Huge numbers of people flowing as they do daily to their very long workday… Women also cross, and one we’d seen at the entrance to inspection we met again when we came toward the exit where it also seemed the line of laborers coming through the clicking and squeaking revolving gate one-by-one was endless: tick-tock as each went through. The woman complained that, although a separate lane had been set aside for women, Israel allows men who push their way in to go through the same lane…
Dorit is stunned and can’t settle down. Through her eyes I was able to see the terrible injustice Israel is doing, which I’ve already (seemingly) gotten used to. She’ll send her impressions and the photographs she took constantly.
Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
See all reports for this place-
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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