Eyal Crossing, Eliyahu Crossing, Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim), Qalqiliya, Ras 'Atiya, Tue 27.10.09, Afternoon

Place:

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

Qalqiliya

Eyal Crossing

Eliyahu Crossing

Ras 'Atiya

Observers:

Riva B., Ruthi R.; Translation: Galia S.

Oct-27-2009

Afternoon

Ras Atiya checkpoint

13:40 - There are 3 soldiers at the checkpoint. Two cars enter without delays and one car as well as one pedestrian leave.

The Palestinian in one of the entering cars stops to talk to us. He wants to tell us that the soldiers are OK now, which wasn't always like this but now it's OK. He also tells us that the hours of pressure at the checkpoint are 06:30 in the morning and 18:30 in the evening, opening and closing time.

Tsufin checkpoint (1037)

14:20 - We move towards Qalqiliya. Four soldiers are at the checkpoint. No one stops us nor talks to us.

Qalqiliya checkpoint

14:25 - The checkpoint is unmanned.

We want to go back through Sufin checkpoint but the soldiers don't allow us. It turns out that there is no problem in entering through Sufin and going towards Qalqiliya but leaving from there is prohibited unless one has an ID card with a Sufin address.

Eliyahu Gate passage

14:30 - A soldier and military police check trunks and ID cards of everyone who crosses. They are rather rude. There aren't many cars and the traffic is flowing.

Irtah checkpoint (Efrayim Gate)

15:00 - As soon as we get there, people approach us. One Palestinian from Jenin says it takes him a long time to cross the checkpoint in the morning and in the afternoon because of the congestion. Today he has been working in Ashkelon picking grapefruit, for which he got IS 60.00.

A Palestinian family woman who works in Kadima picking strawberries can barely make it to return until 18:30 and sometimes has to spend the night in Kadima.

Palestinian young women complain that having no separation between men and women in the passages makes them very uncomfortable since there are men who take advantage of the crowdedness and paw them.

When we stand right at the gate, the men tell us that in the morning the congestion is huge. There are thousands of people and many times people get wounded because of the congestion. There are not enough, sometimes only two, inspection "windows" despite the pressure and the checks are spitefully slow. They wish that the checkpoint could open half an hour earlier in the morning (at (04:00) and that there would be four or even six additional manned "windows". Many people say that they were treated muck better when the soldiers handled the inspection.

As we listen to them we can see that although there are 100 people waiting, only one inspection window is active and the line is long. We call the IDF Humanitarian Center in order to complain and some time later another window opens and the pressure lets up immediately.

Riva has managed to talk with the person in charge of the security about the separation between men and women in the morning hours. He says there is not much that can be done but promises to look into the matter. He says there is separation in the security check but not in the long line that precedes them.

Eyal checkpoint

16:00 - When we arrive, we hear from Nayima that it is not allowed to carry food (cooked meat, rice and lentil dish, sour milk) and they threw hers into the garbage can. Only water (not ice) and canned food are allowed.

Here, too, it's coming back from work rush hour and only one window is operating. The line is long. We call the Humanitarian Center, which seems to help because another window opens.

No'am from B'Tselem [The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories] contacts Riva and asks her to find out what exactly is the inspection facility that disconcerts some of the women fearing that the X-rays show them nude. Riva's attempt to talk to any of the workers in the facility is unsuccessful. They simply ignore her request to talk to them. She discusses the problem with the Humanitarian Center and then also with Grisha, the head of the DCO [District Coordination Office of the IDF Civil Administration that handles passage permits]. From him we learn that the instruction (not to talk to us) that the women soldiers at the Efrayim DCO got has been canceled. We also discuss with him the issue of the separation between men and women at Irtah, the terrible crowdedness in the morning and the problem of the food they can carry, a problem we believe to be solved.

16:30 - Our shift ends, but not the occupation...

Location Description

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

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The checkpoint is for Palestinians only. It is the main barrier to the passage of workers from the northern West Bank to Israel.
Workers with a permit to work in Israel and also for trade (with appropriate permissions), medicine, and visiting prisoners.
One can cross the checkpoint only on foot. The checkpoint is located north of Road 557 and south of Tulkarm. Operated by a civil security company, opening hours: between 4:00 and 19:00 on weekdays.
As members of Machsom Watch, we began our shifts to this location in 2007.
We arrived before it opened at 4 in the morning and report since, on the harsh conditions and the long and crowded queues of workers. The workers who pass by continue their journey by transportation to work throughout Israel.

In the first period of its activity, about 3,000 and then 5,000 people passed through this checkpoint every day. Due to the small number of checking points and arbitrary delays for long periods of time in the "rooms", workers feared losing their transportation.
Hence workers leave their homes at 2:30 at night to be among the first. Today, 15,000 pass and the transition is faster. Workers are still leaving their homes very early to get past the checkpoint at 7 p.m.

In an adjacent compound, there is a terminal for the transfer of goods on a commercial scale, using the back-to-back method.

Eyal

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Eyal Checkpoint is intended for pedestrians and Palestinians only.
This is the main barrier for workers to cross from the center of the West Bank. Workers with a work permit to enter Israel can pass through it for trade, medicine, and visiting prisoners.
The checkpoint was built on the Green Line north of Qalqilya in the separation barrier that surrounds the city. The checkpoint began operating in 2004 by the military.
Opening hours on weekdays from 04:00 to 19:00. We started holding shifts there in 2007. We arrived at the checkpoint before it opened at 4 in the morning. We reported on the difficult conditions and the long and cramped queues of workers who must continue their journey by commuting to work throughout Israel. At the end of June 2009, the checkpoint was operated by a civil security company, The transit time has been gradually shortened, today it is faster, but the Palestinians still have to arrive very early to make it to the transportation.
Usually, about 15,000 people pass through.

Qalqiliya checkpoint

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Qalqilya is surrounded on all sides by the separation barrier. The only exit from the city is in the east of the city on the road that leaves the city in an easterly direction. This is where the checkpoint was located. When the checkpoint was active until 2009 our shifts watched long queues of cars being inspected at the only exit from the city to the West Bank. The checkpoint was canceled, but there is a military presence at the entrance to the city.

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Asira al-Qibliya: the wall and ceiling of the balcony are charred

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Ras 'Atiya

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The checkpoint is presently on the Separation Barrier roadway, manned and open 12 hours a day, from 6:30 to 18:30. West of it is the large Seam Line village whose school is attended by children from the nearby villages east of the Barrier and many of whose inhabitants have permits to work in Israel. How long this checkpoint will remain in place is unknown, since construction of the Separation Wall, just by the settlement of Alfe Menashe, east of the present Separation Barrier, is endless, as is the creation of a new road and, obviously, a new checkpoint.

Eliyahu Crossing

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This checkpoint, also known as the Fruit Crossing, is one of the main checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank.
It is located on Route 55 between Alfei Menashe and the turn to Qalqilya and Tzufin, more than 4 km east of the Green Line, in the separation fence, which separates Qalqilya from its lands to the south, thus leaving Alfei Menashe West of the fence - the Seam Zone.
This checkpoint, a few kilometers across the Green Line, is intended for "Israeli settlement in the West Bank and the population of the Seam Zone."
It is managed by a civil company. Palestinians with a special permit for their lands in the seam area info-icon are also allowed to pass through it, on foot, and sometimes by car.