'Azzun, Eliyahu Crossing, Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim), Wed 6.3.13, Afternoon

Place:

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

'Azzun

Eliyahu Crossing

Tags:

Seam Zone

Palestinian farmers

Observers:

Rina (Guest), Karin L., Shoshi A. – Report and photos

Mar-6-2013

Afternoon

Translator: Hanna K.

Azzun, Kafr Tsur, Irtah CP

11:25 Eliyahu crossing – three cars are being checked with their engine-hood raised. There are no queues and the traffic is sparse.

Izbat Tabib - The barbed wire hoops on the left of the road still exist, and the road itself has been enlarged lately. Opposite the school there is a protestors' tent, made of green sheets.

11:35 Azzun – A meeting with Z. in his shop, to unload parcels of clothes and toys. Z. tells us that sales are declining because the Palestinians, who didn't receive their fees because Israelis withholding the transfer of the tax payments which she collects for the Palestinian Authority, don't buy. It is quiet in Azzun. The settlers do not arrive in order to perform riots. Without understanding medicine we can discern that his condition has deteriorated and the trembling has intensified throughout the whole body.

A phone conversation with M. from Falamiya – the troubles have ended and the gate is open (it was closed for a single day only).

12:30 Kafr Tsur – A meeting in G.'s house – he wanted to talk with us about the residents who hadn't received permits to process their plots. He worked over thirty years in Israeland speaks fluent Hebrew. He has a passage permit at the Sal'it CP (agricultural gate #839)which is open in the morning from 05:45 till 06:15 and at noon from 15:00 to 15:50 only. If a Palestinian leaves in the morning to his plot for a task that takes three hours only (for spraying, for instance) he cannot return home at the end of his task. He is obliged to remain in the field till the opening hours of the gate in the afternoon. An unbearable situation.G. was yesterday at the DCO and received an additional permit for passage at the Jubara CP (fabric of life gate #753) which is open all the 24 hours. But not everybody has the same luck.

He turns to us in the name of three Palestinians, residents of Kafr Tsur, who had permits which expired and were not renewed. The reply which one of them got, after he applied through the regular channels to the Palestinian linkup who transferred his request to the DCO, was that his plus had received already many permits on which it was written "working", and therefore they refuse to issue him a permit. He is the single owner of the plot, as all the members of his family moved to Jordan, and in his opinion it is impossible that permits had been issued for his plant to others, unless their were forged. This is a phenomenon that repeats itself.

We received his papers and were asked to transfer them again to the DCO. We decide to change the program of our shift and to drive to the DCO with A.'s "application for an entry permit to the juncture area". Our host G. joins us. On the way he tells us that they are no more a local council, but that their have a municipality which operates in a three stories building opposite the village of Zibad, and unites all the villages of the neighborhood.

We stop at the outskirts of the village to see Sal'it(a cooperative workers' settlement in the east of the Sharon, about 8 kms south of Tul Karem) which is so near, to our left is the separation fence which is adjacent to the houses of the settlement. When one person from the village of kafr Tsur wishes to enter Sal'it for work, he contact his liaison person and he arrives with a key and opens the gate for him. G. calls this "Good neighborly relations".

We observe the villages of Ar-Ras and Jubara. Their plots were, according to him, included in the area of the West Bankby the new separation fence, as a result of a ruling of the High Court of Justice. The completion of the works is expected in about two month, one has to rebuild a part of the road. On the other hand a great part of the plots of the village of Kafr Tsour will remain beyond the fence, because of their vicinity to the settlement of Sal'it.

After one passes under road 557 and turns left there is a long queue of vehicles with yellow number plates – Israeli Arabs who return to Israel. We continue northwards, turn right and by way of Farounreach Izbat Shufaand continue to the T intersection which was blocked in the past, the big blocks are still on the side of the road. Our host leaves us. In the intersection there are 4 military vehicles. We try to find out from the many soldiers who walk along the road which turns right (to road no. 557) what the reason is, and they answer "a secretmaneuver".

13:30 The Kafrtiat/Te'enim CP – no queues.

13:40 We go to the DCO at the Irtah CP with A.'s papers. There is a sparse traffic of Palestinians who return home. The gate of the DCO is shut. We ask about Adal but don't get any cooperation. We contact Adal and he surprises us and arrives to meet us beyond the fence. He refuses to take A.'s papers. "Tell him to contact me. I will explain to him that he has to approach a hearing committee at the Palestinian Authority".

14:00We continue on road 444 in the direction of Kfar Saba. We did not successfully accomplish our mission. Disappointment.

Location Description

'Azzun

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Azoun (updated February 2019)

A Palestinian town situated in Area B (under civil Palestinian control and Israeli security control),

on road 5 between Nablus and Qalqiliya, east of Nabi Elias village. The inhabitants are allowed to construct and improve infrastructures. The Separation Fence has confiscated lands belonging to the town's people. In 2018 olive tree groves owned by one of its inhabitants were confiscated for the sake of paving a road to bypass Nabi Elias. Azoun population numbers 13,000, its economic state dire. Its infrastructures are poor, neglect and poverty rampant. In the meantime, the town council has completed paving an internal road for the inhabitants' welfare.

Because of its proximity to the Jewish settler-colony of Karnei Shomron and its outposts, the town suffers the intense presence of the Israeli army, especially at nighttime: soldiers enter homes, arrest suspects, trash the house and sometimes ruin it, as they do in numerous places in the West Bank. At times a checkpoint closes the entrance to the town, so no one can come in or get out.

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

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The checkpoint is for Palestinians only. It is the main barrier to the passage of workers from the northern West Bank to Israel.
Workers with a permit to work in Israel and also for trade (with appropriate permissions), medicine, and visiting prisoners.
One can cross the checkpoint only on foot. The checkpoint is located north of Road 557 and south of Tulkarm. Operated by a civil security company, opening hours: between 4:00 and 19:00 on weekdays.
As members of Machsom Watch, we began our shifts to this location in 2007.
We arrived before it opened at 4 in the morning and report since, on the harsh conditions and the long and crowded queues of workers. The workers who pass by continue their journey by transportation to work throughout Israel.

In the first period of its activity, about 3,000 and then 5,000 people passed through this checkpoint every day. Due to the small number of checking points and arbitrary delays for long periods of time in the "rooms", workers feared losing their transportation.
Hence workers leave their homes at 2:30 at night to be among the first. Today, 15,000 pass and the transition is faster. Workers are still leaving their homes very early to get past the checkpoint at 7 p.m.

In an adjacent compound, there is a terminal for the transfer of goods on a commercial scale, using the back-to-back method.

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.