The occupation appropriates another important resource – people’s time.

On Friday at noon, I drove two women and a man, residents of Kalkilya (Palestinian city) from Rambam Hospital in Haifa to Eyal Checkpoint.  I checked the Land Port Authority website of the Ministry of Security to find out how late the checkpoint stays open for people leaving Israel.  According to the website, the Eyal Checkpoint is open on Fridays until 13:30.  We arrived in time – at 13:25, but the checkpoint was already closed.

Palestinians arrived in transport vehicles a bit before us and a few minutes after.  Everyone wanted to get home and found a checkpoint that was closed.  There was no one to speak with. I found a transport vehicle that had empty places and the driver took my three passengers to their destination for only NIS 40.  I could have taken them to Eliyahu Checkpoint, as I did a month ago, when I arrived late at the checkpoint.  The driver, an Israeli Arab, suggested a better destination for them to go to.  

I mistakenly thought that the bureaucracy of the occupation was efficient, that opening and closing times are adhered to. Evidently, the workers at the checkpoint also wanted to get home and left early.  The result is that the occupation, again, is appropriating an important resource – people’s time.