Habla Checkpoint (1393)

Spring is in the air. If it weren’t for the checkpoint, it would be a quiet and pastoral morning.

Talking with the owner of a plant nursery in order to clarify why work permits in the seamline zone are being delayed/canceled.

6:20  The checkpoint is closed. The soldiers arrive and open it on scheduled time, at 6:30.

The lines are not long. Today, people cross at the barrier and not at the check post, and even when a large number of people gather, the passage is fast.  An owner of a plant nursery arrives giving a show of organizing the line even though there is no need for it. Everybody knows his task and there are really no problems at the crossing.

The passage has become somewhat more efficient – the bus bringing the teachers to Arab-Ramadin, the Bedouin village in the seamline zone, brings the high school girls back to Hable, so there is only one bus instead of two at the crossing.

A man turns to us on behalf of a villager from Arab-Ramadin whose request to bring some cows which he has bought onto his land has been refused. Unfortunately, we are unable to help.

We ask the owner of a plant nursery about the damage caused due to the fact that work permits are being canceled or not renewed. Yes, it's a problem but they are trying to solve it. He believes the reason is that land owners, due to fraud, received permits not proportionate to their amount of land, or they might have sold their land to three different people while each person got a permit or other things like that. That's why the army has decided to clean up the mess, and those who suffer are of course honest people who keep working their land. Hoping for a solution, the owners of the plant nurseries have turned to the DCO in Qalqiliya and even to the office in Bet El with the support of a lawyer and a newspaper reporter. They don't know what is happening in the Tulkarem District apart from the demonstration which we all have heard about. They hope that after Independence Day the permits will be issued, and that the holidays have been the reason for the delay. It appears that the Palestinians themselves have to put pressure on the DCO instead of turning to their own authorities.