'Anabta, Deir Sharaf, Eliyahu Crossing, Habla, Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim), Te'enim Crossing, Thu 14.7.11, Afternoon

Place:

'Anabta

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

Te'enim Crossing

Eliyahu Crossing

Deir Sharaf

Habla

Tags:

Detainees

Observers:

Michal Bostok, Yehudit Levin (reporting, photographing)

Jul-14-2011

Afternoon

Translator: Charles K.

14:00 Habla checkpoint– we arrived when the gates info-icon were being closed.

New hours:

Morning – 07:00-09:00

Afternoon – 13:00-14:00

Evening – 17:45-19:00

The soldiers promised to put another sign on the gate (like there was until recently), listing the hours it’s open.

14:10 Eliyahu crossing- Two police vehicles. No congestion.

We passed the former location of the Beit Iba checkpoint. Now it’s a dusty road with no sign of its past, though there are people who can’t forget.

17:15 An army jeep drives toward Deir Sharaf. A command car parked at El Gandi’s plant nursery (before Deir Sharaf).

17:20 Anabta checkpoint – An army jeep parked at the checkpoint. Soldiers in the watch tower.

We’re told that the army was also here in the morning. Vehicles aren’t being stopped.

17:35 Kafriat/Te’enim No congestion. They ask our driver for his ID.

17:40 Irtah/Sha’ar Efrayim checkpoint– Palestinian laborers returning home from work in Israelgo through the checkpoint without having to enter the inspection area.

We walked to the other side of the checkpoint, where we saw a woman waiting at the revolving gate into Israel. A Palestinian who helped us translate told us that she’s been waiting since 16:30 (that is, more than an hour).

Two armed security personnel were nearby – we tried to call their attention to her and called to them, but they ignored our presence: they turned their backs and went into the area reserved for the guards.

18:00 We returned to the facility, to the entry area for laborers returning from Israel, to try and find a way to call the guards’ attention to the woman waiting at the revolving gates. We called the humanitarian office, talked to M., who transferred us to the Tulkarm DCO, without the desired result, while Michal B. tried to arouse the guards’ attention and called loudly to the window of the building they were in.

It didn’t help.

Then Michal tried the magic potion that made the guards jump up immediately – she lifted up her hand with the phone and photographed the upper window where the guards can sometime be glimpsed.

So someone finally “paid attention” to us – a guard, Robi Turgeman, comes over immediately and announces that he’s going to detain us and call the police because we’re in a security installation where photography is forbidden. He won’t talk to M. from the humanitarian office, who hears the conversation and asks to speak with him. He demands that we give him the cameras so he can inspect them and erase the confidential security material…

18:10 El'ad Yiftach, the duty officer at the checkpoint, arrives. We ask him to allow the Palestinian woman to go through the checkpoint. He said that 21 minutes ago people came in from the other side, so the woman couldn’t have been waiting for an hour. Nor does he understand why she doesn’t enter.

We said that we didn’t see – like she didn’t – a green light at the revolving gates.

He said that it was unacceptable that the guards (who turned their backs to us) hadn’t called her.

He said he’d check whether there was a green light.

18:35 The Palestinian woman exits from the checkpoint inspection.

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.

Anabta checkpoint

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The checkpoint is located south of the village of Anabta, at the intersection of Road 60 (leading to Nablus at the entrance to Area A), with Road (57, 557, 5576) facing west towards the Einav settlement and the checkpoint at the exit from the West Bank - Figs checkpoint.
Until 2010 we used to watch the intersection and report the long columns created due to a slow inspection of the vehicles in both directions.

Oct-29-2011

Anabta checkpoint 24.10.11

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Deir Sharaf checkpoint

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Deir Sharaf checkpoint is located west of Nablus and south of the settlement of Shavei Shomron, at the entrance to the village of Deir Sharaf on the road leading to Nablus. The checkpoint was activated in early March 2009 after the Beit Iba checkpoint was closed. Palestinians are allowed through the checkpoint , but not for Israelis. Unlike the checkpoints leading to Qalqilya and Tulkarm, crossing of Israeli Palestinians is only allowed on Saturdays.

Feb-29-2024

Nina Seba

Deir Sharaf - the entrance to the village

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Te'enim Checkpoint (Crossing)

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The Figs checkpoint, located on Road 557, east of the Green Line and the Ephraim Checkpoint (Road 444), is a vehicle crossing, open 24/7 all year round.
It serves the Israeli population, including those authorized to enter the Palestinian Authority. The passage of foreigners holding international passports recognized by the State of Israel is approved.
In exceptional cases will the passage of a Palestinian be allowed here.

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.