The northern checkpoints: walls instead of fences

“We will dress you in a dress of concrete and mortar”.

At Barta’a Checkpoint and Dotan Checkpoint there are signs advertising the second stage of construction in the settlement of Reihan.

15:10 – Tura – Shaked Checkpoint

The concrete wall now hides the village of Tura, but not the checkpoint itself.   Three cars were waiting to cross to the West bank and three were waiting to cross to the seamline zone.  It took the cars a half hour to cross.  One of the drivers who was waiting on the seamline zone side complained that the soldiers from the border patrol who are now operating the checkpoint are slower than the soldiers who were here previously.  Two attractive young women were waiting for a car to pick them up.  They were residents of Um A Reihan who were returning from shipping in the West bank.             

15:50 – Route 611

We drove along the road that leads from the junction of the checkpoint to the town of Harish.   On the section of the road that leads to Barta’a and the old Barta’a Checkpoint, on the hill the concrete wall is being built that is replacing the separation fence.    Israel is enclosing itself and the Palestinians with walls.   The jailer is also a prisoner.

16:20 – Barta’a – Reihan Checkpoint, seamline zone side

Dozens of men in pressed white shirts and dark pants were waiting in the parking lot for rides.  All of them work as waiters at weddings that are held in Israeli Palestinian Arab communities.  An attendant was calling their names according to their work places and they disappeared into minibuses that were waiting for them.  All the best to the couples getting married and to the waiters who were serving them!        

Many people were returning from work in the West Bank, including a few women and a young woman with a lovely set of twins.    We didn’t know why but the women coming through the long irritating sleeve appeared unusually friendly  today.    We hope they will have a pleasant and relaxing weekend.  Some people took a short cut and jumped over the fence of the covered sleeve. 

16:40 – Another group of waiters in white shirts came up the sleeve to the parking lot.  We walked with them to our car to return home. 

“We will dress you in a dress of concrete and mortar” is a line written by the poet Natan Alterman who was one of the founders of the movement to settle the entire Land of Israel.  We wonder what he would think  of what is taking place today.