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Jan-5-2004
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Jubara checkpoint , Monday AM, 5 Jan 2004.MachsomWatch Observers: NL, DM, TP, EM 06:55 – The Schoolchildren’s Gate:The schoolchildren are on holiday, but workers with permits who work in Jubara are going through from the A-Ras and Jayous crossing. (Something we’re seeing for the first time). We talk with the people who tell us they’ve heard that a closureinfo-icon is in force at the checkpoint and so they’re going through the gate. 07:15 – Jubara checkpoint:From a distance it looks really quiet, very little movement. After we park our cars, I try to found out what the situation is today. Was informed by O., the checkpoint commander, that there’s a "closure."We received his consent to stand at the different ends of the checkpoint, “But don't talk to the soldiers.” We split up to go to the different ends. Tulkarm-North checkpoint:There are hardly any pedestrians or private cars trying to leave Tulkarm. Ambulances go through in the normal procedure.Farmers from Farun and Shufa complain to us that they’re not allowed to get to their land in the Jubara area. We take their details, through aware that there’s little chance that we can help them.The Jubara area is a “seamline” area [where the Territories lie adjacent to Israel] where the Palestinians have no access right. In terms of the army, this is Israeli territory. This is how land is expropriated and innocent citizens’ livelihood is taken from them. Someone who arrived at this end seeks our help. He introduced himself via his ID and his permit, showing that he works for the Palestinian Authority’s educational administration. He is given a permit to cross on foot but not with his car (which he parked at the southern end of the checkpoint). After checking the matter with the checkpoint commander, the man is then given a permit to cross by car. He returns on foot to his car and then goes through. A man who wants to return home from the Tulkarm area to the village of Jayous isn’t allowed to cross over, although we plead – he’s sent back home the same tortuous way he had come to Tulkarm.(It’s totally absurd - on one hand they’re tough and don't allow people to cross via the checkpoint, but at the same time they encourage Palestinians to circumvent the checkpoint – and that’s legitimate). Tulkarm-South checkpoint:A long queue is forming. Soldiers bawl at the waiting people to move back – shouting “Closure, closure!” and “No one’s getting through."It’s a school holiday today, and entire families from the villages are trying to go on visits. A bank clerk wants to get to work, students to their studies. For the soldiers – these people are indistinguishable from each other. We phone the DCO officer and request his presence. After an hour, a soldier from the DCO turns up. When he intervenes, some people are allowed through. We phone the Civil Administrationinfo-icon to find out if there really is a closure, because according to the DCO there is no closure, and everyone is entitled to go through into the Palestinian are. The left hand doesn’t know what the right one’s doing.The DCO soldier is tired out by the pressure and walks off. In the meantime, the soldiers on the north side are going to eat and no one is manning the positions at the crossing. The Palestinians from the Tulkarm region are stuck. Again we phone the DCO, the Humanitarian "Moked", the civil administration, and the brigade operations officer. At the latter's number, there’s no answer; at the administration they promise to see why don't they simply let everyone through; and the DCO is helpless. Most of the Palestinians who weren’t passed through by the DCO soldier give up and leave the checkpoint, the bank clerk among them. We’re tired and frustrated. On our way home, the Humanitarian "Moked" of the Civil Administration phones us to see if the problems have been solved. We have no encouraging answers. We tell him that when we left the checkpoint, the DCO was still claiming that there’s no closure and the checkpoint commander - from the brigade - said there was.09:15, Tulkarm-the Irtah gate:The soldiers maintain there is a "closure". No pedestrians at all. Trucks are doing back-to-back loading [transfer of goods from Territories vehicles to Israel]– by the usual method.09:30 – We leave.