Tarqumiya
02:00 We left Omer for Tarqumiyya.
02:45 Tarqumiyya. The pen is already filled with people. Very cold, so two fires already burn in the pen. The coffee seller is also warming up beside a small fire. Cars keep arriving, people emerge from them.
03:03 The Jawal seller arrives and makes a first circuit of the pen offering his wares.
03:06 Cars bringing workers arrive at an increased rate. The fires are fed with pieces of cartons.
03:15 People begin moving, crowding together, you can identify those who’ll climb on the fences.
03:27 The pen is completely full, a line begins forming outside it, the first ones intending to climb the fence begin to do so.
03:32 A bus arrives from Dura with laborers.
03:39 The group of young men we identified as likely to climb the fence in fact does so and pushes past those on line. The older men move off to sit on the rise.
03:43 Another bus arrives.
03:43 The revolving gates open and people rush in to the inspection booths to get a place on line. The lane over the fence and roof also opens.
03:53 The revolving gates close; the Jawal seller voluntarily organizes the line.
03:54 The revolving gates open.
04:00 The revolving gates close. Even though there’s no line and the pen is empty, it seems as if there are fewer people.
04:04 The revolving gates open. There’s a constant flow of people, no lines, no congestion.
04:08 The revolving gates close. The lines are at the inspection windows.
04:10 The revolving gates open.
04:14 They close.
04:16 They open.
04:19 They close.
04:21 They open.
Close, open, close, open – a brutal routine.
04:25 Three people sent back so far, one forgot his permits, the employer of two others cancelled theirs.
04:30 It begins to drizzle. It’s terribly cold.
04:46 No lines at all, whoever comes enters the pen and goes through the revolving gates, and though there’s no congestion they revolving gates open and close intermittently.
04:49 The revolving gate opens, the rain intensifies.
05:10 We left. About 3,000 people had crossed by now.
Tarqumiya CP
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The Tarqumiya Checkpoint is one of the largest and busiest checkpoints where people and goods cross into Israel. It is located on the Separation Barrier close to the Green Line, on Road 35 (connecting Beer Sheva and Hebron). It is run by the Israel Defense Ministry’s Crossings Administration with civilian secuirty companies running the day to day operations. The checkpoint is indeed open to vehicles in both directions 24/7, but Palestinians are prevented from crossing in vehicles, except in special cases. MachsomWatch activists visit the checkpoint as it opens at 3:45 am, in order to observe the daily passage of nearly 10,000 Palestinian workers. The workers arrive from throughout the Southern West Bank. Our activists report on the tremendous overcrowding at this checkpoint; they have observed young men climbing and scrambling on the fences and roofs of the ‘access cages’. This is how the work day begins for those who ‘build the land of Israel’. updated November 2019
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