Jubara, Irtah

JUBARA , IRTAH, Thursday 25 November 2004 PMObservers: Hanna A., Ruthi B., Rina D., Nurit R. & Rachel H. (reporting) colour=red>The shift lasted from 13:30 to 15:00.Summary: There was no closure and no detainees. Occasionally a line of cars (around 20) formed, heading for Tulkarm. The back-to-back facility at Irtah was being operated with exceptional efficiency. 13:30 – Jubara Three soldiers were staffing the checkpoint controlling entry to the village. We were allowed to park close to the site. No detainees were visible. Some men were waiting opposite the site, hoping to cross into Jubara. One of them had requested a permit a month ago but was refused, because two and a half years ago he'd been jailed as an 'illegal" [caught in Israel without a work or passage permit] , did four months in prison and received a three year suspended sentence. We took his phone number, and later gave him the phone numbers of attorneys dealing with people who are unable to receive permits. At the crossing into Jubara, a woman resident of Nablus was trying to get to the coffee-house just to meet her brother. Originally from Umm el-Fahem [in Israel], she had married a Nablus man. In 1986, when her children reached school-age, she returned her Israeli ID card. For the past three years, she has been unable to visit her family in Umm el-Fahem. The soldiers took her papers and permitted her to visit a nearby house. She later left for Nablus. We will try to get the attorneys' numbers to her, as well. A child with a sack of spices was forced to empty out its contents to be checked by the soldiers.At 14:00 – two women with foreign passports (French and British) crossed from Jubara to Tulkarm, where they are volunteering in a community project.The previous crossing-point to Tulkarm for vehicles has been sealed off with barbed-wire, and another opening has been made a few metres away to the west. Pedestrians were allowed to cross through freely, with only random checks. A porter trying to take across spare parts for cars was detained by a soldier who was tense and hostile towards us – “Who are you? Go on home”. The checkpoint commander, who was very courteous, calmed him down, but explained to us that there was a serious prohibition against taking spare parts, because they were apparently stolen. The soldiers didn’t allow two women carrying a car radiator to take it into Jubara.14:40 - Irtah A woman officer and a Border Police soldier were stationed at the checkpoint. Five trucks were waiting, but there were no pedestrians to be seen. The officer said that the movement of labourers [from the Occupied Territories into Israel, where they are employed, usually in agriculture] had lessened, it’s unclear why. She brought a child and seated him on a chair, to wait for his father, and told us that now three trucks can be unloaded and one loaded simultaneously [in the back-to-back process noted here, trucks drive up to a special area at the checkpoint, offload their cargo which, after it has been checked, is then loaded onto waiting trucks that have come from the other side of the checkpoint and which then take the goods onwards — thus no trucks cross through the checkpoint from one area to another, and all in the name of security]. The border terminal in Irtah, she added, would be opened at the beginning of December , and she believed that more permits would be issued.In general, there was a relaxed atmosphere.