Olive CP (623) - 3rd Friday of Ramadan

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Observers: 
Rachel W., Orit D., Nili F. (reporting)
Jun-16-2017
|
Morning

Olive Terminal - 3rd Friday of Ramadan

10:00  We positioned ourselves at the checkpoint set up in front of the checkpoint building.  This is a temporary exterior checkpoint to filter arrivals and departures in order to ease the pressure at the checkpoint itself.
The checkpoint commander, a border-police soldier, willingly explains the procedures on Ramadan Fridays when there is a large pilgrimage to prayers in Al-Aqsa. Palestinians come to the Olive Terminal from Abu-Dis, Al Ezariya, Suwahara and also Jericho; sometimes also from Nablus because hearsay reports that passage is easier here.

The commander estimates that on Friday some 8000 cross, mostly adults who go back immediately after prayers.  Women and children cross freely with random  checks "because sometimes there are boys disguised as girls" (and the commander offers to show us photographs for proof.  We decline.)

Men over 40 and boys up to the age of 14 accompanied by parents or holding a permit.

Two lanes in the checkpoint, one for women the other for men.  The men must show their their green ID's; the women only at the soldiers' request.

Body checks and  checks of belongings take place at the regular checkpoint. According to the commander only Palestinians who fulfil the requirements are allowed to cross. Those prevented are of course stopped at the exterior checkpoint.  They are identified by two Arabic speaking officers who perform their work efficiently.  The ID of any suspect is passed on to the female soldier who checks the list of suspects on the phone.

The persons refused are turned back.  Some of them crowd in front of the checkpoint.

A large canopy provides shade, and a giant fan faces the soldiers and people crossing.

Traffic moves fast in both tracks.

A woman lieutenant-colonel of the border-police arrives from the Rachel checkpoint where pressure is heavy because those denied crossing obstruct the rest.

10:30:  traffic intensifies.  The commander immediately opens another lane for men and the pressure subsides.

A soldier distributes a written greeting for Ramadan from the person in charge of aligning operations in the territories.

A Palestinian with a Jordanian passport is turned back -- he must cross through the Allenby crossing.

10:50:  Towards 11:00 many who have been refused arrive in the hope of crossing under protection of the mounting pressure. 

Two Arabic speaking officers, a captain and a second-lieutenant, greet those crossing with the holiday greeting, and even banter with them. "The joy of the impoverished" I think to myself. [This is the title of a poem "simhat ani-im" by Alterman]

11:10: A company commander arrives.  Altogether we counted 20 soldiers and border policemen, many of them officers.
 

A father and son try to cross.  The son is over 14, and is refused. The father is helpless and the son is a witness to his helplessness. Yet the occupying authorities consider parents to be responsible if the son should attack or kill a Jew.

11:20  The checkpoint commander (whom Rachel knows from her shifts to be capable and efficient) summons "armed force".  Immediately soldiers, armed top to toe, arrive to turn away all those refused persons crowding the entrance to the checkpoint.

The commander's orders: "No one touches anyone; no one talks to anyone. I do the talking."

The soldiers form a tight line which moves forward and pushes back those who have been refused passage.

11:30  Some of the fences marking the lanes for crossing are dismantled.
 

We leave our position and cross through the regular checkpoint over which shade has also been provided.  The crossing is not crowded.

As an observer at Qalandia, I was surprised by the neatness of Olive Terminal (there was even a pleasant smell).  All the Friday reports from Qalandia mention the filth and stench, to say nothing of the toilets, and again I think to myself: "the joy of the impoverished".