Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim)
A few minutes after we had arrived, we heard an ambulance driving up to the line near the turnstiles. It appeared that a man had passed away. 7-8 check posts were working, but according to the laborers, the situation was back to normal (meaning bad) only two days after having improved somewhat in reaction to a TV report about the checkpoint.
4:30 When we arrived, we met some dozens of people who reported that the crossing had been easy and quick, that 7-8 check posts were open. People who came later complained that the checking had stopped and that there
had been a 15 minute pause due to an emergency evacuation exercise of the security staff. We didn't manage to understand anything more. We would have liked to know what the plans, if any, were for the Palestinians in case of emergency…
Next to the fenced-off area, a few laborers were waiting. They explained that they didn't want to join the line because of the great crowd. They preferred to wait until the pressure was over.
Like so many times in the past, at about 5:00, dozens of angry and frustrated people were gathered at the exit. They said that the checking was very slow, that the soldiers (female?) were not in a hurry but kept talking to each other instead of speeding it up in order to prevent a long line from being formed. According to them, it took 10-30 minutes to cross. People said that only on Monday had there been a change for the better, but now it's clear that striking isn't enough, they have to demonstrate as well. They asked us from which media channel we were and as usual, some people said that, anyway, we couldn't help them, while somebody else thanked us and asked us to report about what we had seen.
One of the laborers at the exit assured us, over and over again, that they were all good people that had been checked and received their permits to enter Israel, and nevertheless, it was so hard to get through. It was as if he were trying to justify himself instead of blaming us, the ones who should be ashamed.
We left at 5:40. The fenced-off area was still very crowded with a lot of pressure and no enough air to breathe.
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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