Tarqumiya, Thu 13.3.08, Morning
Arrival time: 05:45
We estimate that there were some 700 workers in line when we arrived. The line extended beyond the covered area. Workers we asked said they had been in line for about an hour and that the crowding resulted from other checkpoints being closed.
The fact that it is not as cold, and that it gets light earlier in the morning, helps both us and the workers, who seemed happy to see us. Four positions were manned (or rather ‘womanned’) inside the checkpost with two windows open on each side. The method of handing the already opened papers through the windows seems to be working well. We counted some 23 workers going through per minute.
At some point, a new checkpoint line suddenly opened up. A number of workers were sent to the other side of the road and their papers checked there. The line was shortened considerably, to everyone’s satisfaction. When for some reason this second checkpoint ceased operating, we asked the soldiers to continue it and were pleased when they did so.
All in all it was a good morning. At 6:50 the covered area was almost completely empty.
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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