Eliyahu Crossing, Ras 'Atiya, Tue 2.2.10, Morning

Place:

Eliyahu Crossing

Ras 'Atiya

Tags:

Seam Zone

Observers:

Natalie, Ruthie (reporting); Natanya translating

Feb-2-2010

Morning

7.30 Ras Atia. One soldier in the sentry tower, 4 soldiers at the checkpoint and some more in the checking booth ( we could not go close to see how many).

This checkpoint opens at 6.30 to 18.30. In the room IDs are checked and people go through an x-ray device.

A bus of children arrived at the village. A soldier get on and then off the back door as buses are checked at the bus station in Tel Aviv.

Now a woman comes out on foot. She is going to her lands outside the village. She asked our help. She has three sons who are not allowed to go out of the village to the lands. Only she is. The driver and children drive through the checkpoint, showing papers. The man and woman get out of the car and go to the checking area. The soldier explains that the driver is a teacher and so does not have to be carefully checked.

7.50 Ras Tira. We went into the village but met no one.

8.00 Sha'ar Eliyahu. The traffic flows and there are no delays or detainees info-icon . At Funduk there is a border patrol jeep next to the big house in the centre of the village.

We see army Hummers at the side of the road, after Kedumiem and also soldiers on patrol. An exercise? Expected settler activities?

Location Description

Ras 'Atiya

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The checkpoint is presently on the Separation Barrier roadway, manned and open 12 hours a day, from 6:30 to 18:30. West of it is the large Seam Line village whose school is attended by children from the nearby villages east of the Barrier and many of whose inhabitants have permits to work in Israel. How long this checkpoint will remain in place is unknown, since construction of the Separation Wall, just by the settlement of Alfe Menashe, east of the present Separation Barrier, is endless, as is the creation of a new road and, obviously, a new checkpoint.

Eliyahu Crossing

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This checkpoint, also known as the Fruit Crossing, is one of the main checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank.
It is located on Route 55 between Alfei Menashe and the turn to Qalqilya and Tzufin, more than 4 km east of the Green Line, in the separation fence, which separates Qalqilya from its lands to the south, thus leaving Alfei Menashe West of the fence - the Seam Zone.
This checkpoint, a few kilometers across the Green Line, is intended for "Israeli settlement in the West Bank and the population of the Seam Zone."
It is managed by a civil company. Palestinians with a special permit for their lands in the seam area info-icon are also allowed to pass through it, on foot, and sometimes by car.