Just Another Day

 

 

 

‘Azzun ‘Atma is a village enclosed between the settlements Oranit, Elkana and Sha’arei Tikva and the separation wall. The village is surrounded by a fence, traffic to and from it requires going through two checkpoints. For any practical purposes, it has become a prison compound. Any communication between the villagers and the external world requires the permission of soldiers and through checkpoints (pictured: the checkpoint on the western end of the village). Ten families that were left on the other side of the separation wall have to go through the checkpoint on their way to the village grocery store. They are restricted with a ration of goods they can buy (see here), for fear that they will use them for trade in Israel proper, west of the Green Line. No terrorist actions ever came out of this village. And all this is only in order to leave those three settlements on the western side of the wall.

More on a ‘Azzun ‘Atma: Imprisoned Tomatoes (April 2009); “We’re Jailed Here, Do Something. You Must” (May 2009).

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Tristeza não tem fim, Felicidade sim

 

 

 

 

Huwwara Checkpoint, south of Nablus, today, January 7, 2010, 3pm:

 

The pedestrian waiting point is empty. For six months now there hasn’t been a requirement for the tasrikh, the permit for vehicular passage through the checkpoint. Obtaining the tasrikh was complicated and expensive. Many residents of the West Bank took a cab up to the checkpoint, crossed it through the pedestrian post, and then took another cab afterwards. Many would cram into one taxi to save on the costs of travel (1 shekel from Nablus to the checkpoint, another shekel from the checkpoint to the nearby villages: Huwwara, Bita, Burin, Udala).

It is a welcomed change. There is no need to switch taxis, and it is much easier to wait will sitting inside a car. The encounter with the soldier is also less intimidating from within a car. The downside is that not only is there no need for a tasrikh for vehicular passage, pedestrian passage is not allowed. The pedestrian checkpoint is closed, unmanned. Those who arrive there by foot, are sent back. The most natural means of transportation for people, their pair of legs, has been deprived from West Bank Palestinians. While the checkpoint is much easier to cope with now, it also presents a severe withdrawal of human rights and and freedom of movement.

The photos are of the pedestrian checkpoint at Huwwara, today.

Top: A closed gate at the exit from the pedestrian checkpoint.

Bottom: The checkpoint from aside. The concrete structure served as a solitary confinement cell.

The title is quoted from Vinicius de Moraes, lyrics of a Jobim song – “Sadness has no end, Happiness does.”

 

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How to Get a Bicycle through a Carousel

 

 

Irtah (Ephraim terminal), south of Tulkarm, Thursday, December 24^th, 2009, 4:45 pm.

The upper photos show the carousels at the entrance to the terminal, the bottom photo shows the “midway” carousels, between one part of the terminal to the next.

See also previous posts on Irtah, in the early morning hour; in the late afternoon.

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Rumors

 

Last Friday (December 4, 2009) an Israeli police force blocked a group of peace activists in the Shuhada street in Hebron (Palestinians are not allowed to drive in Shuada Street although they are its residents). The policemen claimed to have a signed order by an Army general, declaring the area to be a Closed Military Zone. Despite our demand, we did not see the order. Therefore, I was unable to publish a post on Hebron as I was hoping to. I will be in Hebron this week, too, so I hope I will be allowed to enter the Closed Zone. Beginning next week, the blog will return to its normal activity.

The efforts to restrict peace activists from the arenas of occupation is recently increasing. Of course, it is always done under the auspices of the exhausted arguments of security (the disruption of the delicate balance, interference with the work of military forces, and of course “it’s too dangerous for you, we are protecting you”). The intention is clear: to cease documentation. To stifle rumors. At times, this is even made explicit.

In many years to come, children will ask questions, parents and grandparents will apologize. They will try to explain that at the time it seemed reasonable, that they only wanted to have a good story to tell around the bonfire, and above all – that rumors were stifled.

Above: a rumor that has not yet been stifled. Qalandiya checkpoint, Ramadan, September 2008.

 

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High Holidays

It was عيد الفطر (Eid ul-Fitr) this week, the festival that celebrates the end of رمضان Ramadan. Family visits are accustomary on a holiday. In previous years I remember traffic jams and long lines of pedestrians at the checkpoints. In their Sunday Clothes, with gifts in their hands. This year the checkpoints were almost empty. The closure (see below) on the West Bank, just as in any other Jewish holiday, kept most people at home. The photos are from the Checkpoints at the Jordan Valley Rift, September 20, 2009, in the afternoon:

 

Hamra checkpoint (road 57)

 

Tayasir checkpoint (on road 5799):

 

 

A siege (Keter or Matzor in Hebrew) is the surrounding of an area and the full or partial prevention of access into or out of it. Nablus, for example, the whole city, the refugee camp and the 15 villages around it, all in all 20 thousand residents, is under such a siege for more than seven years. Entry and exit are possible only through one of the three checkpoints surrounding it (Huwwara, Dir Sharaf and Beit-Furik), and only after examination at the entrance and mainly at the exit from it. Other access ways to and from the city have been blocked by concrete blocks, fences, dirt mounds, and iron arms.

During a curfew (‘otzer in Hebrew) leaving one’s house is prohibited. There is a further prohibition on financial activity. A prolonged curfew is collective punishment, and is against international law.

During a closure (Seger in Hebrew), all entry permits to Israel are cancelled. Permits that were issued to residents of the West Bank for the sake of work and medical care. In 2000, during the Al-Aqsa riots, the whole territories were put under a complete closure. A general closure is when entry is allowed with a permit, usually in the form of a magnetic card. In fact, the West Bank is under this closure since the first Gulf War of 1991. Eventually, and under severe restrictions, Israel began allowing entry for medical and financial purposes. However, following acts of violence, or during Jewish holidays a complete closure is imposed on the West Bank and all permits are cancelled.

 

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Hope for a New Year

 

 

The Hebrew calendar marks a new year this Friday night. As Israelis wish each other hopeful prayers for the new year, I wish for change this year.

In the picture – a father and his son waiting, Beit Lehem CP; September 4, 2009.

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Time

 

Freedom of movement, freedom of worship, the freedom to control one’s own time, to be able to assess how long it will take to get back home.

Pictured: Palestinians waiting, Friday, September 4th, 2009, at the Bethlehem checkpoint.

The Bethlehem checkpoint had this Friday some 12,000 people pass through on their way to the prayers on the second Friday of Ramadan, at Al-Aqsa. Passage was allowed only for women above 50 and men above 45. Children under 15. Before the Bethlehem checkpoint, three more temporary checkpoints were added, especially for Ramadan. Four checkpoints, while fasting, dressed in Sunday Clothes, about two hours wait.

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See also last week’s post on the first Friday of Ramadan, at Qalandiya.

For a Hebrew version of this post, click here.

Ramadan in Qalandiya

The Friday prayers that take place at Al-Aqsa mosque during the month of Ramadan are a religious duty of the highest esteem. Thousands of believers from all over the West Bank try to make it through to Jerusalem, for the Friday prayers of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa. Many leave home in the early hours of dawn in order to go through the checkpoints and arrive as early as possible at the Qalandiya checkpoint, the one closest to the Old City of Jerusalem. The queue begins at the entrance to the checkpoint. Anyone who will get through will have to wait in another queue (in the picture below) for the examination itself.

See Here for a report on y-net (a major Israeli news website) of Police forces that “spread out from early morning in East Jerusalem to the Old City alleys, in order to allow freedom of worship on Temple Mount.” [translator's note: for some reason, this segment of the report did not appear in the English version of y-net]. This is how it is with us Jews – Freedom of Religion for all.

In the photo, Qalandiya, today, August 28, 2009. The first Friday of Ramadan, around 7am. I posted about Qalandiya at Ramadan on my Hebrew blog last year, too. You can see more photos there.

I’ve also written about Graffiti on the wall near Qalandiya as a form of non-violent protest – here.

 

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Water

*All rights for this post, as for all the posts published in this blog, are reserved.*

Last week Haaretz published in its weekend supplement an article by Yotam Feldman and Uri Blau on the lack of water in the West Bank. The article is recommended, and has many data on the inequity between water supply to the Jewish settlements (for pools) and Palestinian villages (no running water).

I went together with a group of peace activists to the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid, south of Ariel, nearby the settlements Beit Arye, Ofarim and Halamish. The village is mentioned in the Haaretz article. In Beit Arye, some ten minutes drive from Bani Zeid, there is a pool. You can see it at the virtual tour on the settlement’s website (the website is in Hebrew, but includes also ads for new constructions and homes, if anyone cares to translate this for President Obama…).

We came with two truck loads of water, a small help that will not solve the water problem of the village, but was still greeted with lots of excitement. The villagers filled bottles and cans with water. It was hard to watch how they leaped on the water, first with bottles to quench their own thirst, then with jerry cans to take home. I took the photos on Friday, August 7^th, 2009, around afternoon hours.

 

They carried the water home on donkeys, in cars, wheelbarrows and even supermarket carts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“But where will we go?”

All rights for this post, as for all the posts published in this blog, are reserved.

On June 1, 2009, the tribe of Al-Hadidiya were given a demolition order for their encampment of tents where they live. Here is how the site intended for demolition looks like:

Suleiman’s tribe were given a similar order a day earlier, May 31, 2009. Here is the site intended for demolition:

 

The Suleimans had a baby born three months ago. Here is her crib, at the entrance of the sleeping tent:

 

Here is the baby in her grandmother’s arms. And her cousin, a five months-old, in his father’s arms:

 

At the Suleimans and the Al-Hadidiyas we were asked the same question: “But where will we go?”

The two tribes are families of semi-nomadic shepherds in the Jordan Rift Valley. I am having a hard to describe the precise location, we meandered on dirt roads. Look for the area around the settlement Ro’i on the map. All the tribes in the Jordan Rift Valley got demolition orders. Concrete blocks were put on the areas where they reside, declaring in Arabic, English and Hebrew that these are fire zones. The photos are from this week, July 14, 2009, afternoon hours.

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Click here for a version in Hebrew.