Irtah/Sha’ar Efrayim Thur. 03.01.13 dawn
Translator: Hanna K.
Irtah/Sha'ar Ephraim, Dawn shift
04:13 –We enter towards the fence with the Palestinian Authority. We meet two representatives of the ecumenical delegation who arrived before us. They report that the women's fence was opened at 04:00 and closed again ten minutes later (why?). They point to the gap in the fences, by which people broke through into the queue from the sides, and caused the riots about which we were reported on the 2.1.13 in a letter which was distributed by Tamar Cohen. At the moment all is quiet and the queue advances in order.
04:30we pass to the other side – to the exit gate to Israel. A person approaches us and asks to tell us that after ten difficult days it now seems, since two days, that the progress returned to its former speed. Another person says that when one sees us or the ecumenist on the spot, the passage is performed quicker. This is probably true, as we missed the exit of a woman whom we marked at the entrance to the installation, when we lingered to talk with people who were already sitting outside.
A person approaches us and asks us to see to it that toilet cabins be added. Today there are four toilet cabins for the thousands who pass day by day, and who wait outside in the cold for their employers…
The tempo of the exit is quick until 05:00, after which the crowd of people who leave dwindles (break?). We return in the direction of the fence, the entrance turnstile to the installation is closed. The ecumenicist say that is has been closed for ten minutes. A person who stands at the entrance to the turnstile got a note which was marked 04:42 by the ecumenicist. Although it was closed – he left at 05:13. That's to say the passage is quite quick.
The ecumenicist counted during 30 minutes the entrance into the installation of 931 men and 9 women.
06:05We leave. There is a great accumulation of transportation cars on the road at the entrance.
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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