Ni'lin (Qiryat Sefer), Sun 31.7.11, Morning

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A new "passageway" in place of the Nialin checkpoint

05:30 A lot of Palestinian pedestrians who left the Nialin checkpoint walking in the direction of Modi'in Elit where there are bus stops for buses which take them to their workplaces all over Israel:  Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Rehovot, Herzliya and so forth.  They say that the checkpoint opens at 05:00 (the checkpoint commander said 04:30).  Every day these lucky people who received work permits in Israel walk by foot from the villages of Dir Kades, Dir Amar and others after waiting about half an hour for their security check at the Nialin checkpoint, to Cfar Rut for the buses, a distance of about 10 km. on their way to work and back home, after work, because they are forbidden to remain in Israel at night - winter and summer, day and night. There are a lot of Palestinian workers around the checkpoint.  There is a cafeteria inside a trailer.  You can eat and drink something which is forbidden to take through the checkpoint.  At the Nialin checkpoint they now have been building a sophisticated security structure for 5 months and it still isn't finished.  To our surprise and pleasure, it was open and well lit.  We had a chance to see the inside of a security building; I will try to describe it from the entrance: 

After a large shaded area there is a cement path and two heavy metal entrance doors which can open only from the inside.  There is  a small and dark "safe" room, and then another one slightly larger but with heavy doors like those of a bank vault;  then 2 inspection rooms with 2 windows on each side and, beneath them, a drawer for presenting ID card;.  another room for inspecting documents, similar to the former.  After this, another room divided into 3 parts, a window on each side with a drawer underneath and 2 sealed rooms on either side.  The next room looks like a cell.  There are "vault" doors on 3 sides and on one of them, the one pointing toward the exit, there is a window with several security glass sections and an opening in the ceiling for a tall chimney.  In front of them, in the rest of the building, there are steps leading up to a gallery - a floor for the guards who walk around over your head with drawn weapons.  Along the entire length of the building, on the inside, there are also rooms, large pipes on which is written "electricity" or "communications" and "infrastructure". The simple and "transparent to the eye" checkpoint of Nialin will soon change into a "passageway". We continued in the direction of the Rantis checkpoint.  The entrance to Rantis on highway #446 is open.  On the side of the road is a large sign:  "Opportunity to buy a private house in Nili." The entrance to Dir Nazim and 'Abud is closed with high piles of sand.  The sign at the entrance to Oferim says in Hebrew and English, the Hebrew scribbled over with a black graffiti.  On highway #465 there is a clear sign for the entrance to the village of Rantis, but the entrance is blocked by heavy cement blocks beyond the gas station, and the road to Kfar Harous. At the Rantis checkpoint there are a lot of vehicles with Israeli license plates.  The passage is quick if you speak good Hebrew with the inspectors. 

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