Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim), Sun 16.8.09, Morning
Sunday is a difficult day at Irtah.
Thousands of laborers are waiting to enter, including holders of permits to stay in Israel. It is necessary to convince anybody possible to open the entrance at 04:00.
04:00 We arrived
We brought two bags with shoes for the children who sell coffee.
They we very happy.
04:30 Esti Z. and a guest called Peter arrived.
04:30 The turnstiles were opened.
05:00 The turnstiles were closed for about 10 minutes.
05:26 It is still dark but the already put out the projectors.
One laborer returned because of fingerprints.
05:38 They made about hundred laborers enter at once, and created a dense congestion around the magnometer. Each queue was stopped and nobody passes. The guard shouts at them via loudspeaker to pass one by one.
06:05 They don't open the turnstiles. Again the workers are detained.
06:15 The turnstiles are opened.
06:23 There are still about 200 workers who didn't pass.
06:35 The turnstiles are reopened after a delay of 10 minutes.
07:00 The queue is all through.
Generally: The queue usually ends at 06:00 in the best of cases, but on Sundays the situation is terrible and the queue drags on till 07:00. The workers are anxious. The transportation, according to them, escapes from them. As far as they are concerned Sunday is an accursed day. It is absolutely necessary to open the CP at 04:00.
An elderly worker left the queue. According to him he had no strength to stand in the queue and he sat down on the floor.
One worker returned with food supplies- half a litre of olive oil, 2 jars of tehina, a bag of 150 g. of black coffee, a tin of 150 g. of dry zaatar, and a small tin of labane. Interested in knowing why?
He came back because his transportation didn't wait for him.
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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