Part 3: From the West Bank, a circuitous road to market

Source: csmonitor (Christian Science Monitor), 21-12-2006
Trucker Rajaee Sultan Tamimi starts his hours-long trek from Hebron (al-Khalil) to Jerusalem`s (al-Quds`) edge at 4:40 a.m. because of checkpoints. If he could drive straight to the city, it would take 45 minutes. Part 3 of three.
By Ilene R. Prusher
HEBRON (AL-KHALIL), WEST BANK - Rajaee Sultan Tamimi rises at 3 a.m. He leaves the house about 4 a.m. and arrives here by 4:30, two hours before sunrise.
He`s an Al-Juneidi Dairy & Food Stuffs Company truck driver, father of eight, and on this recent weekday, he has a cargo of some 500 cases of yogurt and other dairy products to get to an "Israeli" army-run checkpoint at Beitunia, outside Ramallah.
Flying checkpoints and global politics
It is 6:10 a.m. by the time Tamimi is passing Azzariyeh, on Jerusalem`s (al-Quds`) outskirts. Sometime there`s a "flying checkpoint" here - checkpoints that come and go.
"The situation for Palestinians is disastrous," Tamimi says. "Men can`t find jobs. I blame the Arab leaders for not doing more for us. People here have nothing. They have lost hope. Some men don`t have a shekel in their pockets, and their wives go out to work. That`s not in our culture."
Nearly a year ago, he voted for Hamas, which won`t recognize "Israel". That was the people`s democratic choice, he says, and now he doesn`t understand why international financial support is being withheld. "The world is demanding things that can`t be given," he says. Tamimi believes Hamas has the right approach. "Why should we recognize a state with people from all over the world, when Palestinians have been living on this land for generations?"
Neither does he believe in building a Palestinian state next to an "Israeli" one. "We`ll reach a point where we`d have a prime minister or a president who is an Arab, so why not just have one state? Then we can all live here, together, peacefully."
Long days becoming longer
It`s 6:27 a.m., the meeting point between dawn and morning when the sun is already up but the moon is still out. There were always some checkpoints here, at least as far back as anyone in this generation can remember. But the atmosphere at them was different, he says.
"Now, when you approach a soldier, they have you open your clothes, they`re always stressed.... Before, you could drink coffee or tea with them and chat."
He bypasses Pisgat Zeev, an "Israeli" neighborhood in East Jerusalem (al-Quds), where about 50 cars idle at a checkpoint, bumper to bumper, waiting to get into Jerusalem. He continues north, passing by the Palestinian village of Hizma.
At an "Israeli" checkpoint, a bored- looking soldier in a cold-weather jumpsuit and carrying an Uzi simply waves the West Bank vehicles through to another part of the West Bank. Tamimi weaves through the barrier at reduced speed.
"It`s not necessary to have these checkpoints at all. `Israel` says it`s just for security, but I think they do it to disturb people. If it weren`t for these, I could have left my house at 6 or 7 a.m., instead of 4," he says.
"Obviously the whole situation has significant impact on Palestinians` lives and it has a huge impact on movement of goods and services," says Kevin Kennedy, the United Nations` Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory. "If you look at the AMA [the Agreement on Movement and Access signed by "Israelis" and Palestinians], we`re far from the goals.
"The number of closures, blockades, ditches, earth mounds, and similar road hurdles are up 40 percent from this time last year," he continues. "That`s coupled with the permits regime and limits on freedom of movement. A young kid of 20 from Nablus can`t go to Ramallah to get a job and that stifles the labor force. In commerce, a journey that once took 25 minutes now takes two to three hours. So the very movement of trying to ship things, the added transaction and labor costs, the time involved, it just drives things up and up, reduces profit margins, and drives down productivity."
While "Israel" sees blocked roads and security checkpoints as preventive measures that have been successful at thwarting attacks, Tamimi sees them differently. "These checkpoints and walls will never stop someone who`s keen on carrying out a self-sacrifice attack," he says, using the more popular term in the local Arabic lexicon: martyrdom operations.
The Kalandia bottleneck
Around a quarter to seven, he passes through the Kalandia checkpoint, an area with one of the most gnarled checkpoints between Jerusalem (al-Quds) and the West Bank. He has spent up to an hour-and-a-half at the checkpoint in the past.
The heart of the bottleneck is for people trying to get into Jerusalem, which naturally is something Tamimi knows is off-limits to him. Instead, he continues, moving along with the morning rush-hour cars that have begun to fill the roads. He pulls into Ramallah, stops to make a phone call to the head office, and munches on a half-moon of pita bread.
Then he continues driving west, then south, until he reaches the Beitunia checkpoint. The time is 7:31 a.m. The usual customers are waiting: men who want to get their goods through, women who want to visit sons or husbands imprisoned at the nearby Ofer Military Base.
The workday is just beginning
While they wait for the electronic gate to open, the men mill around. With a buzz and a jolt, the yellow gate starts to part, and, as it does, people gingerly and quietly walk through to present their IDs at the guardhouse, which is manned by the Border Police, a paramilitary unit.
A soldier in a military jeep starts beeping with a jarring horn meant to clear crowds.
"No pictures allowed!" a soldier yells at this reporter, ordering her and her interpreter back behind the electronic gate. No amount of negotiating and showing ID cards issued from "Israel`s" Government Press Office seems relevant.
They send in a more senior officer, Capt. Oran Tibi, who gives the order for the journalists to leave. "This is security," Captain Tibi says. "You can`t go into this passageway."
It`s 7:56 a.m., and Tamimi`s dairy products are waiting to be delivered to a driver at the other side of Beitunia. This is not the last delivery of the day. Thankfully, the trucks are refrigerated, which is key in the summer, when high temperatures and slow checkpoints can wreak havoc on a container of fresh milk.
Tamimi passes through just after 8:30 a.m. He still has two more deliveries and 11 hours of work to go.