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Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim)

Place: Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
Observers: Tzvia Sh., Rachel A. (reporting)
Feb-28-2014
| Morning

 

5:00 the checkpoint opens

There is much pressure at the direction of the gate, but the number of people waiting to cross is smaller than usual.

Women wait for the women's gate to open, for the time being it is closed. Our call to the DCO and the Civil Administration

does not get it open either. The women cross over to the general waiting area and within a short time enter the checkpoint.

The line is moving.

We leave at 5:45.

It would sound like an "easy day", but the truth is that we detect the usual tension in the expression on the faces of those

who cross. It is the familiar sign of fearing to lose a day's work since the gate was opened an hour late.

  • 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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