’Israeli’ Checkpoint Turns Morning Commute into 5-Hour Suffering

Local Editor

The scene each day at the Bethlehem checkpoint is horrifying. Lucky Palestinians who managed to obtain authorization to work in the "Israeli"-occupied territories - the "ticket to life," they call it - undergo an exhausting, agonizing wait that can last five hours, even when they arrive early in the morning to beat the crowds.

The inhumane overcrowding to get through the lines at the checkpoint forces many workers to climb the fences just to avoid suffocation. Some workers, many in their 40s and 50s who don't have it in them to withstand the long hours of crowding, try to arrive at 2 am to avoid the misery that will increase as more laborers arrive.

Palestinians must pass through concrete pathways along the separation barrier. At the crossing itself, Zionist military police operate carousels that allow only a small group of workers at a time to pass into the security-check area to verify their authorization to work.

According to data provided to Al-Monitor by the so-called civil administration, 58,000 workers exit the besieged West Bank to work in the occupied territories each day. An additional 27,000 Palestinians are authorized to work in occupied West Bank settlements.

Workers from the besieged West Bank enter the "Israeli"-occupied area through 15 checkpoints scattered along the Green Line. Checkpoint 300 is the busiest and most crowded.

Data shows 7,000 workers passing through that checkpoint every day, but according to Palestinian sources, the actual number is much higher. The West Bank Labor Association reports that 15,000 workers pass through the checkpoint daily.Regardless of the precise number, the checkpoint was not built to handle today's massive flow.

The reason workers are unable to cross Checkpoint 300 in a humane and appropriate fashion lies in the way it is administered. The operation of the other crossings from the Palestinian territories into the occupied lands, including the Erez crossing at the Gaza Strip, has been transferred from the enemy's army to the War Ministry, which hires corporate contractors that use advanced so-called "security" methods.

Source: al-monitor.com, Edited by website team