'Azzun, Eliyahu Crossing, Falamiya, Habla, Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim), Kufr Jammal, Tue 9.4.13, Afternoon

Place:

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

'Azzun

Eliyahu Crossing

Habla

Falamiya

Kufr Jammal

Tags:

Dogs, dog trainer

Observers:

Karin Lindner, Liora Glatt Berkovich (new), Shosi Inbar (reporting and photographing)

Apr-9-2013

Afternoon

We beg that it be checked at Kafr Jamal who the persons were who weren't able to reach their plots

13:10 Habla - The gate is open and there are no people waiting. A truck leaves

And after it the children's bus. The luggage trunk is checked and a

soldier gets on the bus for additional checking.

13:40 Arb a Ramadin – there are earthworks going on at the village. We were

not able to find out what was being done there. The school area is

clean, well groomed and quiet. The school day is terminated.

13:45 Eliyahu Passage – we park the car at the parking lot and cross over at

the pedestrian crossing. Immediately a security man dashes towards us.

You have no right to be here. For whom is the pedestrian crossing

intended? We ask. Only for security personnel is the answer of the

security mean. We are headed to the bus station we reply. This is

permitted only with the accompaniment of a security man. Even before the meeting with the security people I take photos of the

new dog kennels at the margin of the parking lot.

There are good conditions for thedogs waiting for their shift of foraging and sniffing in the cars of the Palestinians entering Israel.

14:00 At Izbat Tabib There still stands the protestation tent in front of the school which

received a demolition injunction.

14:20 Azoun A visit in the shop of Z. and the unloading of the parcels and a toy for his son.

At the exit from Azoun there is a military jeep and two soldiers.

15:00 Palmiya It is quiet at the CP. Nobody passes. At the village we shop at the

grocery but don't succeed in talking with the grocery owner who

talks only Arabic.

15:20 Kafr Jamal - We take a hitchhiker who directs us to a grocery owner who talks

a bit of Hebrew. We explain to him the aim of our visit. We ask

that a list of all the Palestinians who cannot reach their plots we

prepared for us, together with a detailed map. Petahya will contact them for further explanations and we promised to arrive in a fortnight.

We continue through Kafr Sour, Beit Lid and the Anabta CP – there are no searches at the CP and the nice coffee vendor is still here with his jar.

16:25 Jabara CP - All the turnstiles turn and the flow of people returning home is interminable. Near the fence (on the side of the DCO) a Palestinian hands a request to a DCO officer who arrived especially to meet him, with the fence dividing between them.

Dogs Eliyahu Crossing 09042013

Location Description

'Azzun

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Azoun (updated February 2019)

A Palestinian town situated in Area B (under civil Palestinian control and Israeli security control),

on road 5 between Nablus and Qalqiliya, east of Nabi Elias village. The inhabitants are allowed to construct and improve infrastructures. The Separation Fence has confiscated lands belonging to the town's people. In 2018 olive tree groves owned by one of its inhabitants were confiscated for the sake of paving a road to bypass Nabi Elias. Azoun population numbers 13,000, its economic state dire. Its infrastructures are poor, neglect and poverty rampant. In the meantime, the town council has completed paving an internal road for the inhabitants' welfare.

Because of its proximity to the Jewish settler-colony of Karnei Shomron and its outposts, the town suffers the intense presence of the Israeli army, especially at nighttime: soldiers enter homes, arrest suspects, trash the house and sometimes ruin it, as they do in numerous places in the West Bank. At times a checkpoint closes the entrance to the town, so no one can come in or get out.

Kufr Jammal

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Jamal village

This village, rising about 200 meters over sea level, is located about 14 kilometers south of Tul Karm town and about 17 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea. The families living there since the mid-18^th century number about 3,000 persons at present.

The village has lost thousands of dunams of its northern and western lands due to the construction of the Separation Barrier, leaving the lands themselves behind the barrier. After the Israeli Supreme Court ruling in 2011, the barrier was moved to the west and many farmlands were returned to their owners. It is a quiet village, its relations with the nearby settler-colony of Sal’it are favorable, and many of the villagers work in the colony’s industrial plants. Farmers cross the agricultural checkpoint close to this settler-colony in order to tend their fields unhampered.

However, there are numerous acts of harassment and disorder taking place when the village farmers cross the other agricultural checkpoints: gates info-icon do not open at hours suitable to the farmers’ needs, and for a short period of time only; the Civil Administration usually prevents all kinds of crops except olives; tractors and other farm equipment are forbidden entry; only a single permit is issued per family, and occasionally such permits are confiscated and their re-issue is delayed – the common excuse is usually “security reasons”.

How do the villagers make their living? Holders of work permits inside Israel travel at 3 a.m. to Eyal Checkpoint near Qalqiliya town in order to make it on time to their workplace at Sal’it (close to their village) and elsewhere. Owners of vegetable patches who hold permits are allowed to reach their fields beyond the Separation Barrier through the distant Falamiya Checkpoint.

Importantly, fields returned to the village show amazing improvement intending, irrigation and farming variety – and instead of the neglected olive tree groves that were accessible only to holders of transit permits through agricultural checkpoints usually closed, farming has now flourished.

(updated Jan 2021)

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.

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.