'Anabta, Jubara (Kafriat), Qalqiliya, Sun 8.6.08, Afternoon
Summary
It's the eve of yet another holiday in Israel, "Shavuot," so that means there's enforced closure
in the OPT: no Palestinian can come to work in Israel until the holiday is over, and there's plenty of military materiel around all over the place. So, much as we would like to bring closure to the Occupation, we must report, once again, on a lack of resolution, no closure, since there is no satisfactory conclusion. There is no end in sight, neither order nor peace are around the corner. Yet, the lambs and kids we see from the road grow apace, the fields have been shorn of their grasses and grains, and the first, early summer fruits, plums and apricots, remind us that nature still runs its course in spite of the Occupation. At the same time, the Occupation enforces "closure," checkpoints or barriers can be set up at random, a soldier can bring closure to any order, no matter how trifling (Shavei Shomron, Beit Iba), while gateways to the OPT can be opened or closed at random (Jubara)
Qalqiliya
10:50 -- before the "terminal" at Qalqiliya, on the main road, jeeps stand on both sides of the roadway, near the Bedouin encampment on the south and by what looks like a new dirt pathway on the north side of the roadway
At the terminal itself, trucks and three cars in front of us are stopped and checked by a non-uniformed, non-helmeted man, with a fluorescent yellow vest, bearing unfamiliar initials.
10:55 -- at the Palestinian Qalqiliya checkpoint, traffic flows freely in both direction, an Israeli car, or rather, an SUV, is stopped, but is checked quickly and goes on its way towards the city.
On the way to Jit
More jeeps or Hummers hidden on the roadway.
Shvut Ami
At the outpost, a jeep is parked by the house. No sign of life there. On the other hand, at the bend in the road, on the Qedumim side, three bucolic looking tents have been erected, settler youth hanging around. Waiting to attack the outpost!? Who knows? Clearly not an innocent scouting exercise....
13:30 Anabta
A new sign, in Hebrew only, is placed in front of the checking booth in the center of the roadway. It tells that beyond the checkpoint is the Palestinian Authority where the Palestinian police are in charge.
No lines in either direction, no checking, many Israeli vehicles )yellow license plates) going in the direction of Tulkarm. A few minutes later, possibly because of our presence, some are stopped, briefly.
On the way to Jubara, a Hummer, on a dirt pathway, on the southern side of the roadway, flying a very large Israeli flag.
13:55 Jubara
Few vehicles in line, and the soldier, without being asked, says he will open the gate leading up to the village and on to A-Ras. As we wait, in vain at the gate, however, a strange sight. First, the heavy yellow gate leading into the OPT eastwards is drawn across the roadway. One settler car has passed the Border Police, but his path is now blocked by the big yellow gate. Only for a minute, however, as it is immediately slid back to its usual open position.
On the other side, soldiers now move from their checking booth towards the Israeli vehicles waiting to be checked at the terminal building leading into Israel proper, and encourage -- no, order -- all the vehicles to move back, to back up. "Back, back," and, finally, when that's satisfactory, we suddenly see the big yellow gates, being drawn across the road, barring all traffic westwards. Traffic leading eastwards flows smoothly, including a large semitrailer, emblazoned with the sign, "King of the Road," (naturally, it's going towards the "lords of the land"). But everything comes to a complete standstill, as the line of vehicles waiting to be checked grows longer and longer. Meanwhile, our patience wears thin, and having waved, unsuccessfully from the car, to get the soldiers' attention, one of us now goes to find out when the gate will be unlocked.
She is told, in no uncertain terms, that there is an "exercise" going on: "What do you want?" People begin to complain. There's room to walk, just not to get past the closed huge yellow gate with a vehicle. A taxi driver gets out of his car, saying he has to get to the airport. "There's more important things going on than getting to the airport," he's told. A religious man, complete with tzitis also gets out of his car. He, too, waits.
14:20 -- the soldiers are doing nothing but wandering around the terminal area, guns at the ready. We watch a settler's SUV negotiate its way gingerly around the median area of the checkpoint and notice that the barrier arm, after the terminal, is also down and also bars the way. Nevertheless, we give up getting to A-Ras, follow the lead of the SUV in our non-SUV car, and as we emerge unscathed, from the checkpoint area, the border policeman, checking cars going into the OPT, comes up to us, again telling us that there's an exercise but agrees there's no way we will get to A-Ras any time soon. He wishes us a pleasant journey home!