BEthlehem CP 300, El Khadr, Beit Jala, ETzion DCO
Bethlehem and Environs Wednesday FEb.16. MorningObservers: Sylvia P.; Levana R.; Ruti R., reportingBethlehem Checkpoint 300. Three trucks carrying concrete slabs for extending the wall at Beit Jalla. The drivers — two from Rame( an Arab village near Carmiel and one a Beduin) explain that they are waiting for completion of the security check of the area designation for today’s work. Our brief conversation sounded like bits of a surrealist play. — Settlers’ cars speed by; The others pass after a brief inspection. — About 50 people wait in line at the barrier and pass through one by one. Schoolchildren pass without waiting.Beit Jalla . No people. No cars either. Two soldiers in metal helmets stand at the barrier. One of them signals, not to photograph them.El Khader Junction. Levana and I, for whom this is the first visit to the Junction, are shocked by the third-world ambience we see. The quantities of garbage, the harsh and degrading conditions, the filthy structures which serve as shops. — Many children are making their way to the school at the top of the hill. A blind child is helped by another child, to get through the mud and the heaps of garbage. — People come and go. “With Abu Mazen, things will be OK,” one of the passersby consoles us. A cab driver from Hebron tells us that on Friday they had to stand for an hour and a half in the pouring rain. Another complains of the soldiers’ treatment of elderly, fat women. A third sounds off about difficulties at the Etzion checkpost.Etzion DCO 8:30. About 10 people wait in line. A soldier stands on the roof of the building, shouting instructions from above. People who need documents inch along on the line leading to the only open window. The police window isn’t open. Sylvia tries phoning Maher, the policeman who deals with the public, but gets no answer. She phones his superiors. On our way back, Maher calls, irrate. He tells her he was doing something else and that she shouldn’t have called his superiors, but that he is now receiving.On the way out we see a number of people riding on donkeys: a traditional way of doing things or an improvised solution, to the problem of getting around?
Hebron
See all reports for this place-
According to Wye Plantation Accords (1997), Hebron is divided in two: H1 is under Palestinian Authority control, H2 is under Israeli control. In Hebron there are 170,000 Palestinian citizens, 60,000 of them in H2. Between the two areas are permanent checkpoints, manned at all hours, preventing Palestinian movement between them and controlling passage of permit holders such as teachers and schoolchildren. Some 800 Jews live in Avraham Avinu Quarter and Tel Rumeida, on Givat HaAvot and in the wholesale market.
Checkpoints observed in H2:
- Bet Hameriva CP- manned with a pillbox
- Kapisha quarter CP (the northern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
- The 160 turn CP (the southern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
- Avraham Avinu quarter - watch station
- The pharmacy CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
- Tarpat (1929) CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
- Tel Rumeida CP - guarding station
- Beit Hadassah CP - guarding station
Three checkpoints around the Tomb of the Patriarchs
Raya YeorDec-18-2025Hebron - Yusri Jaber and part of his family
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