Jubara, Closure.Detainees.

Place:

Jubara (Kafriat)

Tags:

Ambulance

Closure

DCO (District Coordination Offices)

Detainees

Women

Observers:

Yardena T., guest, Menucha M. (reporter)

Jan-1-2004

Afternoon

Jubara 12:30
On our way to the checkpoint, we were told that the children were on holiday.
Checkpoint Jubara-Faroon/Tul Karem (407). Total closure info-icon . According to the soldiers: because of demonstrations in Tul Karem. (Later we found out that there were none). 2 detainees, one said from 10 a.m. and according to the commander from 11 o'clock, and the second was a youth we had met in Jubara.

During our conversation with the detainees, we noticed an ambulance behind the barbed wire on the path leading to Tul Karem. The soldiers slowly approached it. On our way to the ambulance, the soldiers came back and said it couldn't pass because of the closure.

Talking to the ambulance driver we found out that he indeed wasn't carrying patients, but carrying to Ramallah urgent blood tests of a Lymphoma patient, and from there he was supposed to take Dialysis materials back to Tul Karem. After futile attempts to convince the soldiers and the (very uncooperative) soldier from the DCO, we called Miri from PHR and after an hour the soldiers let him pass. Girl students from Tul Karem and Jenin who returned from Ramallah were refused passage too, but in the end, they were allowed to pass (perhaps because of our convincing efforts). The same was with a girl with a letter to a hospital.

At 3 o'clock five more men were added to the detainee's corner, but at 4 o'clock they were all released to their homes by an officer (captain) who arrived, including the first two. A young man from Jubara who was not allowed to pass was permitted to pass after our pleas. On the other hand, a doctor from Jayus, who was accompanied by his son (and didn't want our intervention) and a woman accompanied by her husband who wanted to go back to her home in Kafr Zur - were not allowed to pass. The husband was allowed, but he returned with his wife to Tul Karem. As for the DCO soldier who was supposed to help - he was more inflexible than the soldiers in the CP.

We moved to the Tul Karem CP and because of the closure, there was no back-to-back activity. A few meters before the gate stood a military Jeep and the driver who spoke fluent Arabic (some of his harsh thoughts we heard earlier in the Jubara checkpoint) held up a young woman who was returning to her family in Tul Karem. After some argument, he left there to across the gate and stopped the woman again. When we were about to leave we saw him leaving too. According to a youth who was standing nearby, the questions asked by the driver were personal questions about her family, her children, and so on, and the youth insinuated it was harassment.

Location Description

Jubara (Kafriat) Checkpoint

See all reports for this place

The Jabra checkpoint was on Road 557, south of Tulkarm, on the side of the Figs Pass, which is located within the Palestinian Authority (a few kilometers east of the Green Line), and serves as an entry barrier from the territories to Israel.

The checkpoint to the village of Jubara, which until 2013 was in the seam area info-icon , blocked and surrounded by a fence, was intended for the passage of the family members of the house next to the checkpoint, and also for the MachsomWatch volunteers (with special permission only), on their way to checkpoint 753. on the other side of the village.

The soldiers supervising the "fig crossing" also supervised the crossing at this checkpoint, in our shifts we often waited a long time until the key was found and the gate opened. The checkpoint was abolished and became part of the separation fence that was moved west following the High Court.