Habla (1393) - a green card that has been taken and not returned
Opening Hours: Changed – 06:50-07:30
At the Falamiya CP The opening hours in the morning are: 06:00 – at the Oranit CP – 06:00
Another day of toughening the life of the locals, who must pass through the CP to reach their lands, and this in the Ramadan period when not everybody works at normal times!
We arrived at 06:30. On the way, near the plant nurseries, there were many people and cars. At the Habla gate there were two soldiers, a boy and a girl, keeping watch. It is said that the Palestinians go out by way of openings at different points along the fence, which the army have omitted to seal. They were trying to criticize this. They were interested to know who we were and we enlightened them in short.
Along came a man looking for his green card. The card had been confiscated by the Border Police people, who had caught him after he had crossed over not by way of the gate. He was told to wait on the road, at the entrance to the plant nurseries, but nobody came to give the card back to him. Until the closure
of the gate, neither he nor the soldiers who were at the gate on their shift (who had arrived punctually) and who tried to help him get his card back, succeeded to find out why his card had been taken away from him and how he would be able to get it back. One of the reasons is also because the Border Police is managed by a different unit than the gate opening one. The soldiers themselves said (as far as we know) that the confiscation of the card is against the law! We were unable to help him.
06:50 The soldiers arrived. On the Habla side about twenty people, perhaps a bit less, crowded next to the interior fence. The soldiers were polite all along. The shed had been cancelled a long time ago and everybody passes now by the post of the soldiers. The first to pass were those leaving Habla, amongst which were two women in festive attire – Ramadan. Part of the people who were passing had been vaccinated. After the pedestrians it’s the turn of the cars to pass.
07:35 They shut the gates.
The soldiers drive from there to the Qalqiliya gate, where only those who work at the plant nurseries adjacent to the gate do pass, as there is no transportation from there to other place, so it serves no purpose to come there.