Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
Dawn. A new amusement park?
3:45 The gates opened on time, and the first people got through in three minutes.
As usual, we picked people we saw at the separation barrier, and watched for them at the turnstiles at the entrance to Israel. This time, in every round, there was at least one whom we couldn’t find at the exit, even after half an hour.
On our first round, a woman we picked came out after seven minutes, while men took 11-15 minutes. Closer to 5:00, when pressure build up, people started climbing over the barricades – evidently from the humanitarian line, which only opens at 7:00, to the lines that were active. Time to get through the checkpoint lengthened to twenty minutes.
Between four and five we saw pressure develop (the first time for us) at the exit gate to the parking lot. People shouted to the guard in front of the offices to open the vehicle gate. He evidently asked for permission, because it took him a while, but eventually he unlocked the large gate and the jam cleared up.
The flashing neon sign at the entrance says Welcome in Hebrew, and the message Happy Purim has changed to Happy Passover. In English it says Welcome, but doesn’t mention any holidays. In Arabic it just says Shaar Efraim. (We don’t read Arabic, but we asked someone.)
There’s new landscaping. Under the roof that used to be the only shelter for people waiting for their rides to work, before the new prayer area was built, decorative elements have been added: synthetic grass and gravel paths to an illuminated wishing well.
A few people took advantage of the ground covering to rest, instead of lying on the asphalt pavement outside.
5:30 We left.
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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