Ras Abu Sbitan (Olive Terminal)
07/05/2013 ,Morning
Idit S. (photographing), Anat T. (photographing and reporting)
A new wall is under construction, and plans for separate roads are taking shape.
The rest is much the same...
Photos:
Preparations for separate roads for Palestinians
A red traffic light to no-where at the Shu'afat checkpoint
Empty space at the Shu'afat checkpoint
06:45 Sheikh Saed
An elderly Palestinian with a permit for prayer on Friday only, is not allowed to cross. The drivers in the transportation lot say he's from the Nablus area and comes almost every day
and tries to cross... he himself says he's trying to visit a sick relative.
It's not clear why he wishes/tries to cross, and it's difficult to help in such a situation; but it's clear that he's not a security threat. Aside from him, everyone crosses safely and quickly.
08:00 Shu'afat refugee camp
_1.jpg)
Many traffic jams on the way to Shuafat. We wanted to meet G., but the bus parking lot is empty and no one answers the pnone. We had time to inspect what Idit calls "urban disasters", particularly abundant here: a red traffic light facing an area full of concrete road blocks and fences; empty fenced-off lots which could have served for parking close to the checkpoint while the approach from the road to the checkpoint is long and especially arduous; lots of fences and cages scattered without any rational plan. Someone is making a lot of money out of this.
Outside the checkpoint some sort of earthworks have begun._0.jpg)
08:30 Olive Terminal
_0.jpg)
We tried to decipher the meaning of the fence under construction, going east from the checkpoint, apparently as far as Az-Za'ayyim. We consulted well-informed folk in Ir Amim, and others, and all think this is part of the long-planned road system whose purpose is to convert the Jerusalem-Ma'aleh Adumim road into a route exclusively for Israelis, thus removing the checkpoint for residents of Ma'aleh Adumim, while at the same time creating a separate road for Palestinian traffic from the north to the south of the West Bank, through the hills and the wadi below Al Ezariya. This would not only prevent Palestinians from using the Israeli road, but also exclude their passage through the controversial E1 area through which Israel wishes to connect Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem. Obviously, if Palestinians cannot access E1 and will have a separate route from the north to the south of the West Bank, this would ease construction in and annexation of E1 at some later stage. It looks as though new energies in the Defence Ministry are reviving old plans and starting up the bulldozers, this time without traces of left-wing relics.
25/04/2013 ,Morning
Rahel M., Michaela R. (reporting)
5 children failed to reach their school because they had forgotten their documents at home.
6:00 Sheikh Saed
Routine traffic, fast crossing.
Olive Terminal
Construction of the wall is progressing. A new metal gate permits vehicles to cross from the parking space to the construction area.
Inside: A line in front of each checking booth. Occasionally one closes and people rush to another lane but after a while that one closes and the former reopens.
A boy of 9-10 is not allowed to cross. With the help of an older translator we learn that he had forgotten his birth certificate at home. The child felt lost and wept. He lives in Al Ezariya, far from the checkpoint. Another 4 children had to return to their homes.
In the state of Israel an educational institution is not permitted to send a child to his home without advising his parents. And in the state of checkpoints?
Anata
Chaos in the parking lot. Hundreds of children waiting for transportation but today the buses are late, probably due to traffic jams.
Chaos also in the vehicle lanes. At one point the line of cars stretches from the checkpoint to the main road and its end is out of sight. Usually in the mornings there are three checking points but today only one was operative continuously, another was closed some of the time. Angry people, deafening honking, but in the checking area the soldiers and guards ignore the distress of those in a hurry, chatting or sweeping the area.
Suddenly an ear-splitting alarm is heard, the metal barrier drops in front of a car already checked. After a few minutes, the barrier lifts and the car moves on, as though nothing had happened.
23/04/2013 ,Morning
Anat T., Dafna S. (reporting)
|
18/04/2013 ,Morning
Rahel M., Michaela R. (reporting)
|
|
6:10 Sheikh Saed
The corridor is overflowing, more than 20 are crowded in it. Crossing is c. 8 minutes.
A young man is denied crossing. Later 8 men had to turn back, some even without being checked.
Cliff Hotel
Notices from the Land Administration hang on the numerous fences warning against entry into the area, subject to risk of life.
Close to the fence, there is a notice about the purchase of the hotel, saying inter alia:
"...(the property) is required for a facility for military and security purposes, to create a barrier on the seam (henceforth, the pupose of the purchase)... The area is required for coping with terror, to bar, intercept and prevent terrorist infiltration from Judaea and Samaria into Israel in general and the Jerusalem precinct in particular.
In view of which the Minister of Finance intends to purchase the right of use of this land [Cliff Hotel] for a period of ten years..."
The notice is dated 29.1.2013, and signed Yuval Steinitz, Minister of Finance.
Well?! The building has been appropriated by the army for years, so why this sudden purchase? Isn't the wall sufficient to bar, intercept, prevent etc. without including the building? Or is there a connection between the setllement of Kidmat Zion, the entrance to which is via the hotel's courtyard?
The building itself is neglected, the windows shattered.
A shiny jeep with windows protected by metal sheets against stone-throwing, carrying 4 burly males, arrives. The soldier tells them they have no permit, but after a pleasant conversation he opens the gate, and they're on their way.
A female settler from Kidmat Zion leaves in her car.
Olive Terminal
On our way in we observe a female soldier, her legs propped on the table, busy with her cell phone. As we left, one of the men crossing complained that her fiddling with the cell phone was time wasted at his expense.
The lines in the corridors are short.
An angry woman asked to turn back after her son (?) was sent to another corridor. The turnstile cannot turn back, and she addresses the soldiers angrily in Arabic. They shout back at her in Hebrew through the loudspeakers.
11/04/2013 ,Morning
Rahel M., Michaela R. (reporting)
5:20 Sheikh Saed
Very dark, few crossing, we did not observe any special problems.
Olive Terminal
A sort of armoured jeep is parked near the parking lot. Later it set off a defeaning siren and moved to some unknown to us destination.
Below the parking lot work is proceeding on the building of a wall.
At the checkpoint: 3 lanes operating, a line of dozens in front of each, stretching to the edge of the metal barrier inside. Crossing time is c. 20 minutes, slow moving, the people quiet and weary, accustomed to the despair.
04/04/2013 ,Morning
Rahel M., Michaela R. (reporting)
|
An ordinary day under occupation.
6:20 Sheikh Saed
Today it's just adults crossing, with the exception of one boy. Checking is orderly, performed in reasonable time. The magnometer beeps incessantly, even the labourers are not spared the dance of one step forward, emptying pockets, one step backward, then forward again -- and sometimes over and over again, until the magnometer stops.
Olive Terminal
Two lanes are open, Crossing is mostly fast.
Below the parking lot a sort of channel is being dug, perhaps in preparation for a wall/fence.
Az-Za'ayyem
They don't like us here. No sooner had we situated ourselves on the side, than a loud and arrogant officer threatened us, demanding we leave his checkpoint. We moved in the direction of the main road but he continued to demand and threaten. We didn't move, and he left. He is not the first to abuse his policing authority, and sadly not the last.
Nothing much happend at the checkpoint because an enormous traffic jam slowed down the flow of vehicles considerably.
|
.
07/03/2013 ,Morning
Rahel M., Michaela R. (reporting)
|
28/02/2013 ,Morning
Rahel M., Michaela R. (reporting)
|
14/02/2013 ,Morning
Shosh H., Rahel M., Michaela R. (reporting)
|
11/02/2013 ,Morning
Dafna s., Anat T. (reporting)
|
Sheikh Saed |
Crossing today is efficient and quick. The younger children cross quickly without unnecessary checks or demands for sundry permits.
Workmen cross quickly (many of course earlier) as do high school pupils. The female soldier does not scold or scream, and the peace is kept. The style is the message, and today the cruel separation from the mother neighbourhood, Jabel Mukhaber, and from Jerusalem, is a little more bearable.
In conversation with the residents we kick around the wild idea of bringing Obama to visit the Sheikh Saed checkpoint which represents so much of the flagrant cruelty and injustice dealt to the Palestinian population of Jerusalem and its surroundings.
7:30 Silwan
The project of judaizing the names in Silwan is already on all the google maps, and we are unable to tell the old familiar name of the intersection in which we are stuck in traffic on our way from the American road to Silwan. Let's call it the "Bustan Intersection" connecting the Shiloah road to the top of Ein Hilweh Street. The reason, it turns out, is archaeological digs carried out by the Antiquities Authority on the eastern part of the road. In the process of laying a sewage pipe, an ancient wall was hit (not unusual in this area) and now the Antiquities Authority is uncovering it carefully to decide whether to continue with a proper archaeological dig. The situation in this neighbourhood is explosive, as we all know, but this morning the problem is mainly traffic. There are no checkpoints, either police or military or any other kind.
8:15 Olive Terminal
A young mother with an infant in a carry-all and big bags walks beside us from the parking lot to the checkpoint. She doesn's want any help. She crosses to Al Ezariya without being checked.
In the crossing from Al Ezariya to Jerusalem there is one crossing point for the public and another for those seeking liaison services. The humanitarian crossing for pupils, teachers etc. is active only until 7:30. The line is not long and it seems our presence contributes to its fast diminishment. We learn from passersby that on Saturdays (which are regular school days for Palestinian pupils) there is an enormous crush between 7 and 8 a.m. because only one lane is open (for lack of manpower, it seems). There were cases of pupils waiting for more than one hour, then giving up and going home.
