Eyal Crossing, Wed 21.10.09, Morning

Translation: Galia S.

Eyal Passage

04:45 – The area is crowded with people coming out of the inspection and cars waiting to transport people.

We approach the fence. The line is not long and most of the people have already left. It turns out that the busiest day is Sunday, when a large number of workers, among whom those with authorization to stay in Israel for a whole week, get here. As we approach, a security man dashes toward us and asks us to leave the place because it is a closed military area. He stays there until we leave and then makes a call to report about it. We move to the exit area. Some people complain about the long inspection inside the rooms.

People here are waiting for transportation. One worker who came from the village of Tammun in the Jordan valley left his home at 02:30 and the passage at 04:30 and is now, at 06:00, waiting for transportation. To our question why he leaves home so early, he says that lately they have resumed the inspections of all the cars at Hawwara, and this generates lines. Another worker has the same complaints.

At 05:30 we approach the fence again and immediately a security man dashes toward us threatening to call the police. The thin line is flowing.

At 06:00 the sun rises and we see in front of us a group of workers with construction equipment. We wonder how they managed to transfer this equipment and find out that these workers are tile layers who keep the equipment in a storeroom in Tira.

A worker who works shifts in a nursing home in Hod Hasharon tells us that sometimes he misses a shift because of the line at Eyal checkpoint. His request is to be let to pass through another, smaller, checkpoint in the neighboring area. We give him Ptah'ya's phone number.