Tayba Romana checkpoint: "The wall is great. It's better this way"

Barta’a Checkpoint 6 a.m.

The lower car park has been changed - it is now entered mainly from one of the huge car-parks at the foot of the checkpoint.

When we got there, a waiting line began to form rapidly at the entrance to the shed over the passage to the terminal. Workers from all over the West Bank arrive here, mostly from the northern and central regions, on their way to work inside Israel. Strangely no one came up to complain about the waiting line familiar problems such as a sudden blacklisting and so forth. People came on foot from various car-parks in the are, took their places in line quietly and waited.

7 minutes later the line began to move fast towards the turnstiles and terminal, and disappeared.

Agricultural checkpoint Tayibe-Roumana (154) below the city of Umm Al Fahm. Opens twice a week.

6:45 The huge megalomaniac wall hides the beautiful landscape of Jenin in the east as well as those waiting to cross.
Pedestrians cross in the small gate, they have been inspected there by the soldiers. A number of women with children also crossed there, followed by a tractor and its driver.

One of the women-soldiers undid by hand the chain that opens the gigantic metal gate, right of the pedestrian gate.

The violent look of the huge concrete wall always startles us anew. But one of the veteran “crossers” thinks differently. It’s good, he says. The wall closed down the problems we had during the time of the breached fence. Now it’s quiet. No more smuggling, drugs, thieves.

One of his daughters got married not long ago. Congratulations… And one of his sons has been accepted into the Palestinian Police. The man says, “He’s in the military.” He’s studying in the university because he can only be accepted as an officer if he has a degree. Now the mission is to build a home so he can marry. No one knows where he can get the 300,000 NIS for this.

Agricultural Checkpoint Anin (214) – Opens twice a week.

7 :30 a.m. The wall is nearly closed, only one section is still open. One of the workers says that rocks prevent fastening the concrete slabs to the ground. Several dozen people cross this checkpoint, from the barrow opening in the wall. Many more than before. They cross over to work in the seam-zone and on days when this checkpoint is closed, they take a taxi to the Barta’a checkpoint and pay 100 NIS for a two-way ride.

A DCO officer approaches us and, as in the past, tries to convince us to keep our distance from the checkpoint entrance. After a quiet conversation we were “convinced”. We waited until the last person to cross passed the wall, Mahmoud – an old friend – and his tractor. Ever since his policeman son was killed in a clash with drug dealers, the man no longer radiates his habitual joy of life. Two of these drug dealers were killed lately, which was heard with some relief by him and his wife.