Palestinians have to renew permits at the Israeli DCO since the coordination with the PA stopped

Place:

Far'un CP

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

Tags:

Transfer Permits to Israel

Updates during Corona

DCO (District Coordination Offices)

Crowding

Observers:

Pitzi, Ronny P. and Micky (reporting); Translator: Charles K.

Aug-31-2020

Morning

Israeli DCO in Tulkarm

Photo:

Pitzy Steiner

The Palestinian side of the Israeli DCO in Tulkarm, located at the Shaar Ephraim-Irtah in Area C.

The Israeli DCO area in Tulkarm

Photo:

Pitzy Steiner

Why do we take the trouble to report in Corona times as well?

Because democracy’s watchdogs have fallen asleep on their own watch, so Israeli citizens have no idea what is actually happening in the Occupied Territories, especially now.

Day and night, Israeli soldiers (as the State’s emissaries) help extreme settler-colonists take the law into their own hands, unhampered. They do not stop even in days of a raging pandemic and do not hesitate to harm Palestinians – their bodies, property, and sources of livelihood.

Unceasing harassment of the weakened Palestinian population inflicts psychological harm as well. All – from babies through and including the elderly and the ill – are open prey to Jewish violence and terrorism which the settler-colonists are only too eager to exert.

We of MachsomWatch will not cease to report, certainly not now during these Corona times and under the threat of annexation, about the settlers’ increased rampages, those who hurry to set facts on the ground helped by the Israeli army.

Israel rules the West Bank, and by force of the Geneva Convention, article no. 27, it is committed to enforcing law and order there. The inhabitants of these Occupied Territories have the legal right “to decent treatment of their body and dignity, and should be especially protected against any act of violence”.

Ironically, this is not at all upheld.

Nor shall we cooperate with the commonplace ignoring of the Palestinian people’s suffering, and with the Israeli public’s indifference to it. We shall continue to follow up closely and report the goings-on in the West Bank, in its villages and encampments.

No one should be able to say ‘We knew nothing, we heard nothing’

Location Description

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

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The checkpoint is for Palestinians only. It is the main barrier to the passage of workers from the northern West Bank to Israel.
Workers with a permit to work in Israel and also for trade (with appropriate permissions), medicine, and visiting prisoners.
One can cross the checkpoint only on foot. The checkpoint is located north of Road 557 and south of Tulkarm. Operated by a civil security company, opening hours: between 4:00 and 19:00 on weekdays.
As members of Machsom Watch, we began our shifts to this location in 2007.
We arrived before it opened at 4 in the morning and report since, on the harsh conditions and the long and crowded queues of workers. The workers who pass by continue their journey by transportation to work throughout Israel.

In the first period of its activity, about 3,000 and then 5,000 people passed through this checkpoint every day. Due to the small number of checking points and arbitrary delays for long periods of time in the "rooms", workers feared losing their transportation.
Hence workers leave their homes at 2:30 at night to be among the first. Today, 15,000 pass and the transition is faster. Workers are still leaving their homes very early to get past the checkpoint at 7 p.m.

In an adjacent compound, there is a terminal for the transfer of goods on a commercial scale, using the back-to-back method.

Far'un CP

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Far'un CP

A checkpoint near the Palestinian town Far'un, which is located near the Green Line, about 4 kilometers south of Tulkarm . About 5,000 residents (2018) 2,000 people moved abroad and their homes were left empty.

When the separation barrier was built in the early 2000's, about 4,000 dunams owned by the village were separated from the local farmers. In 2009, following a petition by the residents, the Israeli High Court ordered a change in the route of the fence. In May 2011 work began, and in 2013 it was completed. Following the movement of the fence, 1,400 dunams are located within the village area and for the 2,600 dunams remained in the Seam Zone behind the Separation barrier. The can arrive to these only through Far'un agricultural checkpoint 708.

MachsomWatch have been in touch with the village farmer since the early 2000s - visiting and documenting the checkpoint and the township . Over the years, the opening frequency of the checkpoint has changed from time to time: sometimes 3 times a week, sometimes twice a week, and sometimes it closed completely for a certain period without explanation. In addition - the checkpoint is opened usually only twice a day and this makes it difficult to cultivate, because the farmers are not able to stay in the fields all day. Throughout the years there were many delays in opening times the checkpoint and the farmers sometimes have to wait hours until they can go to work their plots.

The most difficult problem is the limited number of permits approved by the Civil Administration info-icon for the transition to tillage. Many landowners have problems with lands that are not registered in their name but in the name of a deceased father. Registering is very expensive if the father had several sons and daughters to whom the land belonged after his death. They have no money to transfer their father's land in their name. Before the walls, block settings and gates info-icon that do not open, they divided the plot they inherited and had no problems processing. Today everything is complicated. Plots that have not been cultivated for several years may become state lands and pass to the settlers, residents of the seam area.

Mar-22-2022

Ruti Tuval

The locked gate at the Anin checkpoint

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