Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

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Place:

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

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Activity with Palestinian Children

Observers:

Varda Z, Edith M. (reporting).

Mar-8-2015

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Morning

Irtach

06:58 We arrive. The new parking lot is open. At this relatively late time, there is still a stream of workers leaving the checkpoint, but there is no pressure at the entrance - whoever arrives walks in. A few people go back, all without pressure/\.

07:03 Two women are standing at the gate from the new "slalom." We approach the fence and try to speak with them (unsuccessfully - we don't have a common language.) A guard uses the loudspeaker to ask us how we got there, I point to the open gate, he asks us to back off and we obey.

In the course of the conversation a third woman joins the two. After a minute all three proceed towards the checkpoint. The voice on the loudspeaker asks them to wait a few minutes more, it isn't clear why. Several men pass through.

07:07 We go around to the Israeli side. About twenty men ask to go back, saying there's no work.

The ground is very dirty, mainly used plastic bags. I thought they need more trash cans, but I noticed that the ones they have are empty.

Three buses are waiting in the yard. We ask and are told they are taking visitors to a prison.

07:30 We leave. We want to see the Palestinian side of the crossing. According to a map I found, there should be a road number 574 that leads there from road 557, but in practice it doesn't seem to exist. We took road 557 as far as the entrance to the settlement Avnei Hefetz. A polite soldier at a barricade there said that that road (5615?) going the other direction would probably get us to Irtach, he knows people take it to Tul Karm. But we aren't allowed to go there, because it leads to Area A.

We go home.

Location Description

Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

See all reports for this place

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.