Jubara and Tulkarm South (at Irtah).MachsomWatchers: N.A., E.A., N.S., M.D. 07:05, The schoolchildren’s gate (No.753):The children pass with no disturbance. The gate remains open until 07:30.On the way to the checkpoint we met the head of the regional council.According to him residents of Jubara have no problem passing the checkpoint,even in vehicles: ” Those who claim there are problems are only troublemakers”. Later, in a conversation at the checkpoint with officer Kobi from the DCO [civilian administration office] we get a clearer picture:Those residents of Jubara who still refuse to apply for passage permits remain confined to the village. The policy is not to allow entrance to Jubara without a permit, and to warn every resident of Jubara who wishes to leave the village without a permit that he will not be allowed to return to his home. Therefore, Officer Kobi gave such a warning to two women students who wantedto travel from Jubara to their exams in Tulkarm. The students decided torisk it and get to their exams. 07:50-09:30 — General picture: There is lots of pressure and a small group of soldiers (ineach direction there is one soldier who checks and one who guards) whocannot handle the situation. A police jeep approaches and a policeman jumpsout of it and shouts at us that if we don’t move away he will arrest usbecause we are disturbing the soldiers. After an exchange of a few sentences, calmly on our part and threatening andloudly on his, we manage to insist on our right to approach those people whoare waiting with no further confrontations. On both sides of the checkpoint are many people, some of them claiming thatthey have been waiting for over an hour. Among the waiting people on theeastern side are factory workers, church workers, nurses, students, teachersand two women with children who wish to go to a clinic in Tulkarm. On theopposite side are many carts with merchandise and many pedestrians. Some ofthem had passed the checkpoint with no difficulty earlier that morning orthe previous day in order to attend to their business in Tulkarm, but upontheir return they found that the checkpoint was closed. The commander of the checkpoint announces a “closure” [between Israel and the Territories] is in effect. (Apparently this is a local decision that was made in order to relieve the pressure at the checkpoint) — and the soldiers interpret this as a total closure and allow no one to pass except ambulances.(While we were there, three ambulances passed; all three were checked and passed within ten minutes). Because of the long waiting and the closing of the checkpoint, the peoplestart to push and advance. This put the soldiers under even more pressureand brings on crude reactions as they push the people back.We decide to call the DCO office, but before we receive an answer, officer Kobi arrives.After a brief check of a few cases on each side of the checkpoint, he decides to allow large groups of people to pass, most of them without any checking at all. In an instant, the area is emptied, although it fills up again quickly, but this time everything seems calmer and freer. The presence of the officer reduced the tension between the two sides considerably.When we left the traffic from north to east in both directions was fluent. Two cases remained unattended:(1) A man with a permit for the correct date is denied passage because,according to the officer and the soldiers, it is laminated. According tothem, there are forged permits and the lamination makes the examination ofthe marks on the permit paper impossible. (2) A 75-year-old man with no permit wishes to pass the checkpoint to Jubara inorder to visit his daughter. Despite his addressing his request to officerKobi, he is refused passage because his name appears on a list at thecheckpoint of people who must bring a permit from the DCO office. Ourrequests on his behalf do not help. It’s possible that this is a form ofpressure on his daughter, a resident of Jubara, to request a permit for theboth of them. 9:35, Gate 700 (passage from south Tulkarem, near the village ofIrtah) From afar we see trucks in the area designated for the loading ofmerchandise in the “back-to-back” system. There are no trucks waiting.According to the soldier, there are limitation on trucks coming for this formof transfer of merchandise. Palestinian workers who have no permits and who work within the “GreenLine” [Israel], according to the soldier, pass early in the morning. Israelis who pass the checkpoint in order to visit their families in thevillage of Irtah, Tulkarm and the area, having previously passed the checkpoint inJubara, are not allowed to do so because of the crowding at that checkpoint.Instead their passage is now possible through Gate 700. According to thesoldier, the Israelis who come to visit their families are allowed to passonly on foot, but in special cases, such as that of a handicapped person,they are allowed passage in a vehicle. We witness the passage of groups ofpeople who come to visit their families.We leave at 09:50.