Falamiya North (914) - the checkpoint was opened late

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Observers: 
Nina S., and Ronny P. (reporting); Translator: Hanna K>
Sep-10-2020
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Afternoon

The Falamiye 914 and Jiyus 936 Checkpoints

 

rsday,10\9\20  Noon Shift

Falamiya Checkpoint 914

We arrived at the checkpoint in the greatest heat, before the opening time which was supposed to be at 13:15. On such hot days the farmers to not stay in their fields till 17:00 when the gate is opened again.

We heard people waiting on the other side and the soldiers had not arrived. We contacted the DCO and the soldier on the other end of the line promised to find out what the matter was. The soldiers arrived with a delay of about 20 minutes (we knew them from a past meeting) they said there had been a problem with the car. They indeed tried very hard and all the many persons waiting passed very quickly.

While we were waiting for the barrier to be opened a car arrived and two young women and two men from Nablus came out. They were employees of the Government Electricity Company, and had come to check the high voltage transformers on the poles which are situated there and in the villages in the vicinity. The two men were an electricity company engineer and somebody responsibly for that from Jayyus. The young women were graduated of the Al Najah university, engineers too and spoke an excellent English. And thus we had a conversation not only about the electricity and the Corona but about politics as well. One of them asked me immediately where I was born.  I answered her that I was born in Jerusalem and I saw that she remained speechless and that she was disappointed by my reply.  Later I told her that I saw her expression and that maybe she had thought that I was born in America? I added that today there was a different reality and that we must reach peace and that about 9 million people were here. The young woman had a very short answer: It is impossible to make peace with somebody who arrived here and took your home away from you. And with this she finished our conversation. When the soldiers arrived and we talked with the nice soldier whom we knew from before we told him about the meeting with the young women from Nablus and how astonishing it was that they presented a mirror image of the Israelis who believe that all of Eretz Israel is ours, that it is the promised land etc.

We were very depressed by this meeting.

Jayyus Checkpoint 936

From there we drove to the second checkpoint 936 (Jayyus) through which very few people and tractors passed. We chanced upon an elderly man who held two authorisations for passage with cars to the borderline area (his plantations). One passage permit was till may 2010 and a new one, valid till 2023, but in this one they didn’t bother to register his car number, while in the old permit which wasn’t valid anymore the car number was indeed register. Till today he managed to pass with both permits, but today the soldier is not prepared to let him pass.He asked the nice soldiers to let him pass to his plantations – but he said he couldn’t do that. We asked him to contact his superior at the DCO. He did so willingly but the answer he got was negative.The elderly Palestinian had to return to the DCO and to apply for a new permit. Also the soldier took the old permit away from him. To go to the DCO means to drive to Qalqiliya, to arrive in the morning, to wait till afternoon, and then they will tell him that they are checking the matter and that he should come again, or something similar. This makes one despair and feel for the man who has to undergo all this. All his sons are university graduated and do not work in agriculture and he himself tends alone to his trees.

This shift is an example of the myriad problems, meetings and experiences, which we have at the checkpoints, with soldiers and Palestinians.