Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
The checkpoint opened on time at 4:00. The rate of passage was reasonable at the beginning; from the entrance to the “black box” (we can’t tell what happens inside) until the exit, a woman we chose to watch for, took six minutes and a man took twelve. Later the time inside lengthened to twenty minutes.
People who spoke to us complained about two problem areas:
* On the Palestinian side, where no one maintains order and the turmoil is great, and
* Inside the building where we can’t watch, where our informants reported that only half of the checking lanes were manned.
Sundays are the busiest days and we saw a lot of serious crowding, resembling a flock of sheep…
We notice a phenomenon, people come very early in order to stand around for an hour or more before they set out for work. Evidently they worry that they could be held up going through the checkpoint.
One man told us that he gets up around three a.m., and gets home around six p.m. However, both he and several others asked for the checkpoint to open earlier to relieve some of the pressure.
Our observation raised sad and bitter feelings about the humiliation caused to thousands of human beings under our authority.
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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