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Tuesday, October 19, 2010, afternoon

Place: Bethlehem (300)
Tags: Arbitrariness, e.g. an arbitrary decision Passage Restrictions
Observers: Yael L.-J. (reporting). Avital F.. (translating at the CP)
Oct-19-2010
| Afternoon

General remarks  

The day before our shift a foreign friend  was telling me, that soldiers wanted to prevent her from entering Jerusalem although she was showing them her German passport and had just passsed the checkpoint from Bethlehem. A huge Haredi festival with a lot of music was  taking place on the Jerusalem side . The street to the checkpoint had been barred. No public busses, Israeli or Arab, were available.

Checkpoint Bethlehem : we decided to clarify this case first. We arrived later than our usual shift and reached the cross-road before the checkpoint at 16:00 PM. Everything was blocked and barred, police and Haredim all over the place, women, children, men selling all kind of holy things. Tour busses were parked in long rows. Only when we left the checkpoint we saw one Arab bus on his way to Jerusalem.

We were learning that it was "Rachel's Johrzeit".

We  parked far away. From there we walked to the checkpoint in order to figure out what was happening to the Palaestinians in this festival chaos. We got stopped by a soldier who wanted to see our passports and as we had none we showed him our ID's  and MW tags. He told us that Israelis could not pass no matter from which organisations. Tourists could. The Palestinians could pass through Beit Jala and the tunnel road.   

It was too late for checking this or to drive to the Etzion DCL.

  

  • Bethlehem (300)

    See all reports for this place
    • Located adjacent to the Separation Wall ("Jerusalem Wrap") at the north entrance to Bethlehem, this checkpoint cuts off Bethlehem and the entire West Bank from East Jerusalem, with all the serious implications for health services, trade, education, work and the fabric of life. The checkpoint is manned by the Border police and private security companies. It is an extensive infrastructure barrier and is designated as a border terminal, open 24 hours a day for foreign tourists. Israeli passport holders are not allowed to pass to Bethlehem, and Palestinian residents are not allowed to enter Jerusalem, except those with entry permits to Israel and East Jerusalem residents. Israeli buses are allowed to travel to Bethlehem only through this checkpoint.
      The checkpoint, which demonstrated harsh conditions of crowding and extreme passage delays for years, started employing advanced electronic identification posts and has upgraded its gates' system as of the middle of 2019  - and conditions improved.
      Adjacent to the checkpoint, in an enclosure between high walls and another passage, is the historic Rachel's Tomb, which is now embedded within a concrete fortified building. It contains prayer and study complexes for Jews only, as well as a residential complex. updated  November 2019   .
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