Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim), Thu 14.10.10, Morning
Translation: Suzanne O.
Artach
4:30 a.m.
Hundreds congregate around the turnstiles on the Palestinian side.
The turnstiles were opened at 4:00 a.m.
The turnstiles open once for 5 minutes (approximately) and each time some 50 people exit.
At the exit people report that they have been in the rooms for 45 minutes, an hour, half an hour.
They are all bitter about having to hang around in the rooms in a great crush on a daily basis.
Once again we meet a group of Palestinians who have come from the village of Zabda, near Barta'a, who are forced to cross via Artach.
These people leave home at 2:00 a.m. and get through the crossing at 6:30 a.m. What a waste of time, of hours of sleep, of money and of strength (= life) because of the caprices of the occupation regime.
5:30 a.m.
There are still hundreds of people by the turnstiles.
We hear shouts and a lot of noise from within the crossing.
The important thing is that they have made beautiful garden beds of stones filled with red loam. Next time we shall probably see flowers there – to gladden the hearts of the tired and harassed people.
And these are the 'lucky' ones who have managed to get into Israel to work.
Again the request is raised to open up at 4:00 a.m. on Fridays and not at 5:00 a.m.
6:45 a.m.
We leave feeling helpless in the face of the scenes around us: fences, fences, fences and walls.
And Israel has a heart of stone.
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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