Irtah (Sha’ar Efrayim), Wed 30.9.09, Morning
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We arrived at 03:50; it’s completely dark; people are already waiting at the turnstile.
About 60 male and female laborers are there.
We didn’t go to the checkpoint because of Yom Kippur.
The boys selling coffee told us that yesterday there were many men and women here.
The powerful projectors light up the entrance to the installation.
We hear the guard calling to us in Hebrew over the loudspeaker,
“Good morning to the Machsom Watch ladies.”
We are amazed at the nauseating “good manners” and the “relationship” that’s developed with the guards.
04:30 The turnstiles open. The coffee sellers tell us that yesterday they opened at 05:00.
04:40 The turnstiles close. The laborers wait, not entering.
04:50 The turnstiles open and about 60 laborers enter.
04:45 A Hummer appears, drives near where we’re standing and doesn’t stop.
People on line are impatient; the turnstiles open and close intermittently.
05:20 The turnstiles are closed. We called the humanitarian office which promised to find out the reason for the delays.
05:45 The turnstiles open.
05:56 A line of some 100 men and women; the turnstiles are closed.
The laborers complain that things got worse this week; the installation didn’t open on time and they were late to work.
06:10 Two staff persons from the installation, not in uniform, came over to us.
El’ad, the manager of operations, and another man asked us not to pass the fence.
06:15 Most of the laborers entered.
About 10 laborers came back for the usual reasons – permissions; hand prints; etc.
06:20 We left.
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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