Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)
A black morning in the wake of the elections.
Zakariya, the laborer who just went through the revolving gate, gave Dorit, the guest from far away, a flower and said: It’s not from me, but on behalf of all the laborers…
I left at 04:30 for my shift at Irtah with Dorit, the guest from Los Angeles, and we saw Irtah renovated: a parking lot for cars, winding entry lanes for the “flock”, covered and appearing more orderly. But it seems the way through them is arranged so they wind around until the exit and occasionally we see young men making their way by climbing on the railings and over them to cut in line.
Huge numbers of people flowing as they do daily to their very long workday… Women also cross, and one we’d seen at the entrance to inspection we met again when we came toward the exit where it also seemed the line of laborers coming through the clicking and squeaking revolving gate one-by-one was endless: tick-tock as each went through. The woman complained that, although a separate lane had been set aside for women, Israel allows men who push their way in to go through the same lane…
Dorit is stunned and can’t settle down. Through her eyes I was able to see the terrible injustice Israel is doing, which I’ve already (seemingly) gotten used to. She’ll send her impressions and the photographs she took constantly.