Al Jib - Déjà vu (shades of the old Qalandiya Checkpoint)

We arrived at the Jib Checkpoint (located between the Palestinian village of Jib and the large Israeli settlement of Givat Ze’ev, off route 443) at 6:30 a.m. and joined the line outside on the Palestinian side. The line is about three people wide and is caged in between parallel fences. Upon our arrival we estimated that about 60 people were ahead of us (formally, this checkpoint is limited to people who work in Givat Ze’ev). During the 50 minutes (!) we spent creeping forward toward the checking station, others joined the line, of course. But due to our inability to see above their heads, we could not estimate how many people were behind us. Soon after we arrived, the men waiting on line offered to allow us to pass bypass them all and go straight to the checking station (as a chivalrous gesture), but we explained that we are standing alongside them deliberately and, like them, we would wait patiently for our turn to go through security. In a few brief conversations while on line, as well as with people who had exited the checkpoint as we were about to enter in the opposite direction, we understood that close to an hour’s wait was not an unusual occurrence here. One can imagine that such a situation breeds chronic frustration. Undoubtedly adding to it is the fact that although the passage through which the line passes is covered, it is bordered on each side only by a thin fence, so that standing on line in a rainstorm undoubtedly leaves one waterlogged. Nevertheless, the line at this checkpoint struck us as quite patient and disciplined (or at least was on this mild, sunny morning). Interestingly, the men waiting on it consistently leave a space between the main body of the line and the handful of people at its head who are about to reach the checking-station, which adds to the smoothness of the operation.

The reason for the long wait, we ultimately discovered,  is the structure of the checkpoint. There is only one window where the people passing through can show their work or entry permit (or in our case our identity cards) to the soldier manning the post. This window faces outside the building  (i.e. soldiers inside, permit holders outside) and the space adjoining it is not covered (i.e., no protection from the rain). What’s more, the same soldier checking the permits also deals with the same people a second time, for immediately afterward they enter the building housing the station. The result is that half the time a single soldier is occupied handling issues inside the building while people are waiting by the window outside. (For example, we waited about two minutes for the soldier inside to free up and check our documents through the window). Once inside, the same soldier dealt with checking the contents of our backpacks, as there is no scanner – or at least there wasn’t one this morning. (We did go through a metal detector.) While he was engaged with us, others were waiting  opposite the window outside. There was a second soldier inside the checking station, but he did not relate to us in any way so that we could not figure out what his role was.

The soldier who handled both parts of the security check was entirely pleasant. Although we heard complaints about the pace of the soldiers’ work, we had the impression that the main reason for the slow progress forward was the fact of only a single window for checking documents and that a single soldier played a number of roles in the process. One way or another, it’s hardly necessary to note that waiting 50 minutes on line to traverse a checkpoint on the way to work in the morning is unreasonable.

Alongside the pedestrian line runs the road through the vehicle checkpoint, which worked efficiently. We saw buses and mini-buses that were apparently carrying concentrated groups of Palestinians to their places of work. There were also a number of U.N. vehicles (including at least one bus) and cars with diplomatic plates, which apparently come here from Ramallah to avoid the monumental traffic jam at Qalandia. We also saw a few cars with Palestinian plates, which we assumed were carrying VIPs.

As the situation in Qalandia and Bethlehem ease, to one degree of another, we recommend adding the Jib Checkpoint to the roster both for the purpose of monitoring the situation there and being available to Palestinians who require the various services MachsomWatch provides (such as helping Palestinians blacklisted by the Shabak and the police).