A tour of updates at the North Jerusalem checkpoints

Jerusalem haloed by traffic jams

We arrived at the French Hill at 7:15 ready for a comprehensive observation tour in North Jerusalem with Hannah and Neta. Neta was on the mythological team touring the Jerusalem enclaves checkpoints with Ayana, Michaela, and Daniela (we miss you). She has not been here since the tours stopped in 2012 (in accordance with the Palestinian contacts’ recommendation). She brought a load of good maps, and it turns out that most of the checkpoints remained in place and the enclaves of Bir Naballah and Bido were isolated then as they are today.

Unfortunately, our replacement driver was late and we decided to drive to meet him at the Olives Checkpoint. We made a "shortcut" via Issawiya, but traffic jams from French Hill along the main Issawiya road coming from Route 1 made the shortcut very slow. The village roads are narrow and full of potholes, and all the roads to Jerusalem and Road 1 to Ma'ale Adumim are busy at this time of going to school and to work.

There was no presence of security forces in Issawiya, and we also saw no sign of real progress in the new outline plan approved by the local committee. The plan was announced about a year ago and includes retrospective approval of many of the houses built without permits as well as urban renewal. See here

Travel to Bir Naballah via Apartheid Road 437, the town of Hazma, Jaba, Qalandiya, Kfar Akev and even passing through the Masion neighborhood for those close to the PA

We drove through the a-Za'im / Anatot checkpoint (closed on Friday and Saturday per settlers' instructions) and Apartheid Road 4370, which leads the Palestinians to Anata separately, and the Israeli cars to the Anatot junction. Hannah and Neta were happy to see that the Jaba checkpoint is no longer staffed (usually), and Netanya and I were surprised to see how far the upgrade of Road 437 between the Adam settlement to Neve Yaakov and Givat Zeev has progressed - work on it began about two months ago. We continued to the Qalandiya checkpoint, where the Qalandiya underpass project for Israeli vehicles continues in order to shorten their way to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

From here we meandered a bit and continued from Kfar Akev in the direction of the Masion neighborhood where - the driver told us - families close to the Palestinian Authority live. Indeed it is a beautiful and well-kept neighborhood of villas. We hurried to a meeting we had scheduled in Bir Naballah with M., to hear what the situation was like in the Jerusalem enclaves.

Meeting with M., a veteran acquaintance of Neta Efroni and the Jerusalem tour team, an urban infrastructure engineer and familiar with everything that happens in the enclaves of North Jerusalem

M. is a charming, knowledgeable and very eloquent man who spoke English with us. He was waiting for us at the end of the road that connected Bir Naballah and the villages of North Jerusalem and a-Ram, Beit Hanina and all the roads east of Jerusalem.

"This is the way I would travel to study in Al-Ram - it was our connection and axis of life for all the villages and towns northeast of Jerusalem. We were all of one area." This main road has been blocked since 2003 by the separation wall and the environment is neglected and abandoned.

M. says that Bir Naballah was a prosperous neighborhood - it had factories, banquet halls, cafes, beautiful shops - and many residents lived there. Since it was surrounded by the separation wall in 2003 with one narrow exit under Road 443 leading to Ramallah and Qalandiya through Kfar Aqab and Qalandiya refugee camp, there has been no connection between the Al-Ram area, Beit Hanina and Jerusalem and Bir Naballah. The value of an apartment for rent has dropped from $700 per month to $100 per month.

The shops are closed, the factories are abandoned and the banquet halls are empty. Many other buildings stand empty. No one comes to live here. To travel to Jerusalem, Al-Ram, Jericho, Azaria, the southern West Bank - you have to travel to the Qalandiya checkpoint equipped with special entry permits. As it is, large traffic jams form on the roads leading to Qalandiya.

M. is a native of the area, and lives in Beit Duqqu, one of the seven villages in the second enclave, named Biddu after one of its villages. It is also not connected to Jerusalem and Bir Naballah, but to an underpass that goes under the road of Givat Zeev 436 leading from Ramot to Givat Zeev and 443. This enclave is home to about 30,000 people. Most of them do not work in Jerusalem, and their agricultural land that was not expropriated to settlements in the area also remained beyond the separation wall. "This morning, when I went to meet you, I saw about 200 people waiting near the agricultural checkpoint in Beit Ijza. They leave to harvest the Olives with tools, animals and family members who have received permits for only a few days. The checkpoint opens at 8:00, then only at 16:00. Of course they pass through only with special permits. The farmers are stuck there for hours, and last year, for example, a man fell from a tree in the harvest and was injured and the ambulance did not arrive. "

In these two enclaves Area B includes only the area that was built until the Oslo Accords were signed. The rest is considered Area C, and therefore should not be built on at all. It’s no wonder people are still building houses that receive demolition orders - in the past 30 years of the Oslo Accords, the area's population has doubled.

A special case is the small village of Nabi Samuel. This village is defined as part of ​​the seam zone in full Israeli ownership - and all its residents are defined as Palestinians who are not allowed to leave their homes without a special designated Tasrih (authorization in Arabic). And of course also can neither place a single brick nor plant a flower. M. says that the residents wanted to take care of the street lighting and it was not approved, wanted to build a sidewalk, and did not receive a permit. Their agricultural lands are also inaccessible and some have even been declared a national park.

We agreed with M. to continue this renewed connection, and to try to report on developments in the enclaves area. Photos from the meeting are attached. Neta Efroni filmed videos that will be sent to the Internet later.

We returned to the Olive Checkpoint to pick up the car and drive to a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court before the hearing on the deportation of the residents of Batan al-Hawa in Silwan. There was not a large crowd.