'Anabta
13/11/2007 ,Morning
Shlomit S, Elinoar B (reporting)
A quiet day, empty roads, no pressure at the checkpoints. At the West Bank every day seems almost like Yom Kippur, which is sad.
Qalqiliya
06:30:06:45 - Traffic flows, cars are hardly checked. A Border Policewoman asks us politely to move to other side of the road, for our safety, of course. We should know who's the boss.
On Rd. 55, regretfully, we manage to pass Azzun without noticing. In Al Funduq a young man tells us that the obstruction at Hajjah has been removed.
Jit
The junction is unmanned.
Anabta
09:00-09:20 (on our way back from Beit Iba) - On the exit side from Tulkarm about 20 vehicles are queuing-up, but passage is quick, the checking soldier just asks where they are going.
Jubara & A-Ras
09:30-10:00 - At A-Ras not too many vehicles pass both ways. Checking is cursory. In the shade of the so called tower a dog handler is sitting with her muzzled dog. A Palestinian dog tries to make friends, she gives him some water. Today we were spared the unpleasant sight of the dog checking cars to their owners' dismay.
12/11/2007 ,Morning
Elisheva E., Karen L.,Yona A.(reporting) Translation: Galia S.
Ar-Ras
13:50 – A lively traffic of vehicles and pedestrians mainly from the direction of Tulkarm. Documents are checked strictly. The soldiers say they have received reports about a great number of forged documents and have been instructed to call the police in case a document is suspected to be forged.
The inspection continues also when a vehicle with food for the soldiers arrives and later when the shifts change and there are no jams.
Anabta
14:45 – Four taxis stand on the western side of the road leading to Anabta after the junction. At this hour, there is scarcely any traffic of cars or pedestrians from Tulkarm and into it.
12/11/2007 ,Morning
Frances T., Roni Sh. (reporting) Translation: Galia S.
Eliyahu Passage
06:30 – There is a very long line of Palestinians who enter Israel for work and, in addition, a long line of cars with Israeli licence plates that enter Israel.
Qalqiliya
06:35 – There is no line at the entrance to Qalqiliya. Israeli cars stop and the drivers show an entrance permit while Palestinian cars enter without any inspection. At the exit from the city, there is a line of about 12 cars as well as a bus, standing on the roadside, whose passengers are standing next to it, waiting for the soldier to copy their ID numbers. Two additional soldiers are checking outgoing cars, at times asking to see documents and glancing at the trunk and at times gesturing them to pass. Palestinians pass without any inspection, which makes the meticulous documents listing seem strange.
The children who go to school in Kafr Qasim and in Jaljuliya pass the checkpoint and get on their bus.
06:55 –
The bus we have watching for 20 minutes (we didn't see it when it arrived) is released. At the moment, there are only 2 cars on the way out of the city.
07:00 –
We leave.
The entrance to Azzun is blocked by concrete cubes. A Hummer is parked on the roadside and soldiers stand on the road and let the pedestrians pass.
Tulkarm checkpoints
Anabta 08:55
The red sign announcing that we enter a Palestinian territory forbidding Israelis to enter the area is most conspicuous, but Israeli Arabs are allowed to enter without any restrictions, and they do pass without interruption both for trade and for family visits, which mixed families residing in Nablus and the surrounding area are unable to do.
There is no line at the entrance but at the exit some 19 cars are waiting in line due to the soldiers' interrupted inspection. When the line gets too long to see its end, the soldiers let them pass without inspection.
The taxi drivers are happy because no one has tried to send them away in the last couple of days.
09:20 –
We leave.
Jubara 09:30
We are greeted by the soldiers who ask us not to forget to close the gate to Jubara after we pass.
At the Schoolchildren Gate (or is it the Flower Gate? What is the accepted name?) The soldiers check 3 "illegals" [in Israel without a residence permit] who reside in Tulkarm. One of them is a crippled youth who returns from Taibe where he tried to do business. Another young man, also limping, was wounded in Taibe (confirmed in writing) and a dumb woman who resides in Tulkarm but most of her family lives in Taibe and she went to visit them. The three of them are checked over the communication system and sent home to Tulkarm in a "Jubara taxi".
Ar-Ras 09:40
Very few cars in both directions. Those that come from Qalqiliya are not checked at all and the cars coming from Tulkarm are briefly glanced at.
10:00 –
We leave, happy not to have encountered the "Blue and White" women today [The Blue and White women are right wing activists].
12/11/2007 ,Morning
Frances T., Roni Sh. (reporting) Translation: Galia S
Eliyahu Passage
06:30 – There is a very long line of Palestinians who enter Israel for work and, in addition, a long line of cars with Israeli licence plates that enter Israel.
Qalqiliya
06:35 – There is no line at the entrance to Qalqiliya. Israeli cars stop and the drivers show an entrance permit while Palestinian cars enter without any inspection. At the exit from the city, there is a line of about 12 cars as well as a bus, standing on the roadside, whose passengers are standing next to it, waiting for the soldier to copy their ID cards numbers… Two additional soldiers are checking outgoing cars, at times asking to see documents and glancing at the trunk and at times gesturing them to pass. Palestinians pass without any inspection, which makes the meticulous documents listing seem strange.
The children who go to school in Kafr Qasim and in Jaljuliya pass the checkpoint and get on their bus.
06:55 – The bus we have watching for 20 minutes (we didn't see it when it arrived) is released. At the moment, there are only 2 cars on the way out of the city.
07:00 – We leave
Azzun
The entrance to Azzun is blocked by concrete cubes. A Hummer is parked on the roadside and soldiers stand on the road and let the pedestrians pass.
Anabta
08:55 – The red sign announcing that we enter a Palestinian territory forbidding Israelis to enter the area is most conspicuous, but Israeli Arabs are allowed to enter without any restrictions, and they do pass without interruption both for trading purposes and for family visits, which mixed families residing in Nablus and the surrounding area are unable to do.
There is no line at the entrance but at the exit some 19 cars are waiting in line due to the soldiers' interrupted inspection. When the line gets too long to see its end, the soldiers let them pass without inspection.
The taxi drivers are happy because no one has tried to send them away in the last couple of days.
09:20 – We leave.
Jubara
09:30 – We are greeted by the soldiers who ask us not to forget to close the gate to Jubara after we pass.
At the Schoolchildren Gate (or is it the Flower Gate? What is the accepted name?) The soldiers check 3 "illegals" [in Israel without a residence permit] who reside in Tulkarm. One of them is a crippled youth who returns from Tayibe where he tried to do business. Another young man, also limping, was wounded in Tayibe (confirmed in writing) and a dumb woman who resides in Tulkarm but most of her family lives in Tayibe and she went to visit them. The three of them are checked over the communication system and sent home to Tulkarm in a "Jubara taxi".
Ar-Ras
09:40 – Very few cars in both directions. Those that come from Qalqiliya are not checked at all and the cars coming from Tulkarm are briefly glanced at.
10:00 – We leave, happy not to have encountered the "Blue and White" women today [The Blue and White women are right wing activists].
12/11/2007 ,Afternoon
Elisheva E., Karen L.,Yona A.,Trans: Galia S. Guests:Miriam and Gerard
Ar-Ras
13:50 – A lively traffic of vehicles and pedestrians mainly from the direction of Tulkarm. Documents are checked strictly. The soldiers say they have received reports about a great number of forged documents and have been instructed to call the police in case a document is suspected to be forged.
The inspection continues also when a vehicle with food for the soldiers arrives and later when the shifts change and there are no jams.
Anabta
14:45 – Four taxis stand on the western side of the road leading to Anabta after the junction. At this hour, there is scarcely any traffic of cars or pedestrians from Tulkarm and into it.
11/11/2007 ,Afternoon
Observers: Alix W., Susan L. (reporting); Guests: Mildred H., Martin H.
Summary
Believe it or not, there really is an internet site called The Mother of All Excuses Place. We wonder if the Occupiers of the Palestinian Territories make use of this site, with enough changes to make its name less politically correct for this macho part of the world. At each and every checkpoint that we monitor and document, we hear excuses for just about everything. Today’s shift proved no exception.
Route 55
12:45 -- at the entrance to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, on Route 55, a new barrier, its red and white paint glistening on it raised arm, a tight squeeze, to get through plastic barricades manned by one Border Police and one blue Israel Police man.
Qalqiliya 13:00
From the city, beyond the primitive checkpoint, eight vehicles, none entering. Two soldiers on duty, two eating in the makeshift tent on the side of the roadway. We’re immediately asked to “go and stand behind the concrete boulder” (the tall mass on which the red and white sign tells us – everywhere these days -- that “it’s illegal to enter Palestinian territory”). Having commented to the soldier that it’s so quiet at this hour, we are told, “We’ve had a hot warning… it’s for your safety that you have to go back.”
Palestinian cars and trucks pass the checkpoint without being checked. An Israeli truck is stopped as the soldier spits out sunflower seeds, a line develops to Qalqiliya, and the truck backs up. But Israeli pedestrians, who have left their cars in the parking lot, just pass through, without being stopped.
In the parking lot, a number of back-to-backs take place: red roof tiles from a pickup to a donkey cart and cardboard boxes of apples from one truck to another.
Azzun
Closed in by giant childlike concrete blocks, preventing entry and exit. Taxis stop at the junction with the main apartheid road, letting off passengers.
Near Kedumim
13:30 -- at the hilltop settlement-to-be on the south side of the roadway from Kedumim (all but abandoned with police and army surrounding it only a week before), there’s now an air of bucolic, perhaps domestic, calm. A young settler man, a young settler woman, walking around outside the house, a white tender parked alongside and the signs proclaiming its existence once again, the right way up, alongside the roadway.
Anabta 15:15
The rain has fallen fast and furiously, and this once pristine setting could be just that once again – with a bit of imagination. A flock of goats and sheep stare at the car as we park, a white egret perched atop one of the goats (or, is it a sheep?).
As we approach the checkpoint, we note that the glass (more likely plastic) winter encasing of the soldiers’ positions is in place (as in the cafés in Tel Aviv). From Tulkarm, a relatively short line of six vehicles, including a huge Zim semi-trailer as well as a couple of smaller ones.
To Tulkarm, a bus with pictures of Abbas and Arafat in the front window, then a line of 15 vehicles, suddenly, behind it. But things move quickly. Checking, if at all, is random until a minibus, full of young men, on their way back from the Arafat memorial service in Ramallah, is stopped. All their IDs are taken, one flaunts a hip flask from the window, others demonstrate good cheer and (literal) good spirits. As other vehicles pass freely in both directions, the youngsters complain, “All the checkpoints have been open until now. Why here?” Why indeed.
15:30 – there is at least a ten minute wait, the commander indicating that another soldier is checking (behind the concrete wall). Most of the 17 young men take the opportunity to get off the bus (to relieve themselves – behind yet another concrete wall), the commander is none too pleased that they’re getting out; but when the soldier at last appears with the IDs in hand, the driver cheerfully adds, “I told you they were all OK.”
Jubara 16:00
14-20 vehicles in line to leave the Occupied Palestinian Territories, blue police stopping many vehicles entering.
Gate 753
A donkey cart is in front of us, a horse and cart behind us as we all try to cross the separation barrier. The checking of small trucks heading into the village is endless, one soldier doing it all, the other doing nothing, not even holding his gun. The checking soldier studies each permit slowly and painfully (evidently not at ease with the Holy Language), peers into every nook and cranny of every vehicle or cart, under seats, burrowing into trunks, under sacks. The line of pedestrians on either side of the barrier road grows, as does the line of waiting vehicles. First traffic jam on the separation barrier!
A-Ras 16:40
We finally reach A-Ras after ten or twelve minutes, complain to the commander here, at the same time as the usual “taxi” driver of the village -- bearing Abu Ghatem in the front seat of his old Subaru -- drives up and complains likewise of the behavior of the soldiers at Gate 753.
We’re advised by the commander, “Don’t you know it’s Arafat’s memorial service?” And, another wondrous phrase, “Don’t you know that that (Gate 753) is the entrance to Israel?”
Otherwise, no problems at A-Ras: traffic, what little there is of it, flows freely, but on the way back to Jubara, at Gate 753, the same behaviors we’ve already noted.
08/11/2007 ,Morning
Nina S., Shoshana Z., Yardena T. (reporting)
Anabta. 08:00
The checkpoint is empty – no people and cars.
09:35 The checkpoint is quiet. There's little traffic. A taxi driver tells us that this morning, "a car with blue lights on its top" drove them away and they are not allowed to stand there and wait for passengers. Nina asked Tami for help. According to the checkpoint commander, they are allowed to stand on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint.
We were not allowed to enter the village of Jubara.
08/11/2007 ,Afternoon
Smadar H. Deborah L.(reporting) 2 guests from Europe
A Ras 2:20PM – 2:30PM
No special regulations today. IDs were not being checked nor were the vehicles during the short time we were there. Vehicles from Tul Karm were made to slow down, soldiers took a peek at who was in the vehicle, and the vehicle was allowed to continue on it's way. The booth which is used for checking vehicles from Qalqilyia was not manned so the vehicles coming from that direction didn't have to slow down.
When we arrived vehicles were not allowed to move because an army exercise was taking place. Only a few vehicles were lined up and when the exercise was over, the movement of traffic was resumed.
Transparent plastic against the rain was being installed on the guard tower that over looks the checkpoint from a height.
Anabta 2:47PM
The traffic in both directions was moving with out being stopped. The booths were manned but the vehicles were waved on. Since we just took a quick glance before heading for Beit Iba, we don't know if there was random checking.
08/11/2007 ,Morning
Nina S. Shoshana Z. Yardena T (reporting) Natanya translating
Anabta 9.35
The checkpoint is quiet and there is little movement. A driver says that in the morning a car with a blue light on the roof chased them away and did not allow them to wait for passengers. Nina asks Tammie to help. The commander says that they are allowed to stand at the Palestinian side of the checkpoint.
07/11/2007 ,Morning
Inbal R. Rina Z. (reporting)Natanya translating.
Summary.
The entrance to Azun has been blocked for three days as punishment for the throwing of stones by children.
Ar-Ras
The commander arrests people as he suspects them of criminal wrong doing. The authorities freed them after a long wait. One of them was handcuffed.
Anabta
Stoppage of life because of a briefing which ended when we arrived.
Eyal 6.50.
The workers have problems passing.
Many workers waiting in the parking area but they say that today things were in order and they had not to wait long. But there are two problems.
1. On Sunday morning there are many workers and no extra sleeves or computers are opened. Sometimes they wait more than two hours.
2. Friday mornings even though there are not that many people the checking takes a long time and that is because there are not enough commanders to take command. It seems that the commanders are on leave on Fridays. Then the soldiers do exactly as they please.
Here the workers going through are allowed to return through whatever crossing they choose to Israel and this makes things much easier for the, At the Ephraim crossing this is not so and one ask why those going through Irtach should not have the same privilege.
A-Ras (farm 8). 7.00 – 8.10.
6 detainees.
1. One man according to a soldier because he is suspected of having forged his ID. "He comes through each day with a different ID. The man says he has been in communication with the secret service captain Ronnie who is at the Ephraim crossing. He was supposed to have met him on Monday but had no come because he had work to do. 45 minutes later he was freed.
2. 3 men were detained on their way to work in a neighbouring village. When we phoned the center to ask why this was so they were immediately freed.
3. A young man detained because he was "wanted" so we were told. Later we understood that he was suspected of having passed through today with a stolen car. An hour and a half after we arrived the commander handcuffed him and though he complained that they hurt this did not help. Why does a soldier handcuff a thief when this is not the work of the army? We think it was done at the initiative of the commander first sergeant R. When we phoned it turned out that he had been freed by the police at 11.00.
4. The driver who had brought the "wanted" man was also detained because he was his friend. The man said he had only given the fellow a lift and he was also freed by the police.
It seems that the commander was playing at being a detective. As the sheriffs in the Wild West he decided who was suspect, who should be detained and who should be handcuffed. And this seems to be so in the checkpoints which are far from the command such as ARas . It is good that we get to them sometimes.
7.50 A taxi arrives and all the passengers alight and the dog checks.
Anabta. (Einav).8.30
A long line of cars waiting to enter Tulkarm reaches the crossroads, at least 20. The drivers say that there has been a stoppage of life of 15 minutes. 7 soldiers and a captain are having a conversation in the field behind the pillbox. As soon as they saw us two soldiers were sent to the checkpoint and allowed cars in both directions to go through quickly without being checked. Within two minutes the checkpoint was empty. It seems that there were two captains there who had come to brief the soldiers. When they left the checkpoint returned to normal.
Jit crossroads. 10.10
No soldiers. A police jeep in the direction of Awarta.
Azzun
On our way back from Beit Iba is blocked because of stone throwing.
Nebi Elias.
A random checking by a jeep of cars leaving the village.
Qalqiliya 10.30
In the parking lot are many Israeli cars and those wanting to enter do so by taxi as it is forbidden for Israeli cars to enter.
A big truck is unloading cement blocks to make the checkpoint larger and blocks one car lane. So in the lane that is left cars take turns coming or going and we saw no long lines,.
