Jubara / Irtah – Sunday AM, March 5, 2006 Watchers: Naomi K., Sara B.S., Orna P (reporting)07:10 The Schoolchildren’s Gate A polite soldier asked us if we had a permit and let us pass to the checking point. According to them, the children’s bus passed 10 minutes before. There are two checking positions there. The guidline was to keep the residents of Jenin, Tulkarm and the neighbouring villages apart and not to allow them to pass south toward Qalqiliya.Physicians, teachers, workers and farmers were standing in line in desperation. One of the people waiting there approached us and said that there had never been any terrorist attacks coming from the villages close to Sal’it. All he wanted was to get to his place of agricultural land and work it, and he couldn’t understand why he was prevented from doing it. He used the expression “collective punishment” and said that in his opinion (as it is ours) punishing collectively didn’t do any good to the security of anybody.A soldier from the patrolling vehicle insists that we wear a ceramic protection jacket, which he supplied. We agreed just to avoid an unnecessary confrontation. According to the soldiers, as a result of the terrorist attack on the towers, the instructions of checking and “apartness” had been tightened.The soldiers were very polite and said that they were following the instructions and were unable to help us.We called the brigade commander and the advanced command post and described the situation. We asked them to allow through at least teachers, physicians, and “humanitarian” cases [i.e. medical and other special needs for expedited passage]. Sure enough, within a short while came the instruction to enable passage to physicians, humanitarian cases and a truck of dry feed mixture for chicks. A few minutes later they enabled the passage to teachers as well.The soldiers pointed out that the guidelines were changing from one minute to another. Close to our departure most of the people who were waiting there passed, but some of the workers couldn’t make it to get to work.Jubara, 08:20 Few people are passing the checkpoint. There are no detainees [i.e. held for security checks]. A day laborer who had been waiting to get into Israel told us that there was no way that single laborers under the age of 30 could pass. (He asked: how would he get married if he couldn’t work?) According to him, getting to Jubara from where he lives costs about 200.00 NIS. Taking a gypsy cab that sneaks them into Israel costs 300.00 NIS. [Ed. note for frame of reference: minimum wage is barely 18 NIS/hr.]Youths were unable to get in to work their land in Jubara. They said they were waiting, hoping that a more lenient soldier will arrive in the next change of shifts.Irtah: 08:40 When we arrived, we saw many workers walking along the way from the terminal towards Taibe. When we asked them where they were going, they told us that they had left late because of delays at the terminal and in the security checking and that the employers had not waited for them. They said they were still trying to get some work. Tsahi, the [civilian] chief of security of the terminal, came out to talk to us. Omri, the terminal director suggested to Tsahi that he bring us in and show us the place, so we got in. According to Tsahi, today 700 people can pass within an hour (350 people in each checking position). Two additional positions that are there are neither equipped nor manned because the army doesn’t budget operating two additional positions. They claim that the checking proceeding takes about 20 minutes per person. Tsahi pointed out that today more people arrive than in the past because this is the only passage for day laborers from the whole area.The fact that about 3000 people use this passage creates a bottleneck. The laborers say that sometimes the line gets as far as Irtah.Tsahi claims that they don’t wait a long time. In our opinion, the laborer’s version that they arrive before 4:00 a.m. and leave too late is plausible and convincing. We met many laborers who despaired and went back without earning a living. The employer informed them that he didn’t need them that day. Some of them were afraid that if the delays continued, the employer would not renew their work permit.If all the positions worked and the checkpoint could open on time, all the workers would probably be on their way to work by 07:30. The checking would end within two and a half hours. The checkpoint opens at 05:00 (at dawn), so that it could be possible to end the procedure by 07:30 and enable the people to get to work on time. This is an issue that needs to be raised and discussed with the army, since the place is now operated by civilians. MachsomWatch note:Perhaps we should put the media in the picture.