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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Palestinian laborers strike over checkpoint overcrowding | |
| 2014-12-23 | |
[IsraelTimes] Some 6,000 Paleostinian workers did not go to work inside Israel on Sunday in protest over worsening conditions at a crossing point in the central West Bank.
Israel allows nearly 38,000 Paleostinian workers to enter Israel for work daily via a number of crossing points. The number was upped by 5,000 in September, to the highest level since before the Second Intifada nearly 15 years ago, but efforts to keep pace with infrastructure improvements to accommodate the increase have reportedly lagged. Israel has been working on building a new terminal for pedestrians at the Sha?ar Efraim checkpoint to deal with the influx, but Paleostinian laborers who use the checkpoint to enter Israel say the work has progressed slowly, leading to overcrowding and what they call daily humiliations, the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Monday. ?When I reach the checkpoint ? for me this is like entering hell itself,? Sabri, a Tulkarem resident who has been using the checkpoint for years, told the newspaper. ?People are squeezed together like cattle in a narrow passage. Some people start pushing and in many cases it ends with people getting injured and then taken by ambulance to a hospital in Tulkarem.? On Sunday, in an unusual step, a group of workers spontaneously decided not to go to work until conditions are improved. ?The matter was passed by word of mouth within minutes. I haven?t seen even one person object. We turned back and went home,? one laborer said, according to the daily. Sabri said the Sha?ar Ephraim checkpoint has 16 biometric checking terminals but ?usually only four or five work and the rest are closed.? He also accused the Paleostinian Authority of failing to manage the checkpoint on its side, not sending officials who will direct pedestrian traffic to prevent pushing and chaos. In a segment on Checkpoint 300 near Bethlehem aired last week on Israel?s Channel 1, workers spoke of leaving their homes at 2 or 3 a.m. just to get to enter Israel in time for work at 7 or 8 in the morning. ?Thank God, we don?t mind waiting here for hours on end,? one of the people waiting in an open-air corridor with hundreds of other laborers said ironically. Another man, speaking directly to the camera, said: ?Let the Israelis see how we live? we build their state and they screw with our lives, that?s how it is.? The Civil Administration and the Land Checkpoint Authority at the Defense Ministry said that construction of the new terminal at the Sha?ar Ephraim checkpoint was intended to improve the conditions of passage to Israel. ?We are aware of the temporary inconvenience caused by the construction work which is currently at its peak and is expected to end in the coming months,? the two offices said in a statement. | |
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