Tarkumiya CP - helping to pay a fine

Place:

Hebron

South Hebron Hills

Tarqumiya

Observers:

Smadar and Michal (reporting and photographing); Translator: Natanya

Aug-15-2023

Morning

Hebron - the tamarhindi seller

Photo:

Michal Tsadik

Posters in Hebron

Photo:

Michal Tsadik

We drove through the Tarkumiya checkpoint this time, Late in the morning, everything is as usual.

The parking lot on the Palestinian side is very busy and indicates a very large number of workers coming in every morning to work in Israel.

We met with a person who, on behalf of a friend, asked for our help in paying a fine to the Ministry of Justice.

The man must pay for the defence he received at his trial as an illegal worker because he is not allowed to enter Israel to pay it. We did this service for him. We received the money and went to the postal bank in Kiryat Arba and paid the money for him.

On the way at the Shuyukh junction, manned cement blocks on both sides of the road. Soldiers stand with weapons drawn.

In Hebron, we tried to enter the Kafisha neighbourhood, to our acquaintance at the grocery store. The yellow checkpoint remains blocked for us. A smiling and embarrassed Nahal soldier tells us that a new directive from this morning forbids those who are not armed to enter the neighbourhood on the Zion axis. Our attempts at persuasion and calling the company commander did not help. It is forbidden.

A "new" directive that we have been hearing for months.

As usual, the army puts the cart before the horse. Time did not allow for a longer stay in Hebron, so we took a motorized tour of this ghost town. As always, full of posters about its sanctity and historical importance to the people of Israel, and also along the axis of the worshipers, all the cement blocks are "decorated" with a painting of the Israeli flag. I took a few photos to illustrate the unique settler aesthetics of this city.

Location Description

Hebron

See all reports for this place

According to Wye Plantation Accords (1997), Hebron is divided in two: H1 is under Palestinian Authority control, H2 is under Israeli control. In Hebron there are 170,000 Palestinian citizens, 60,000 of them in H2. Between the two areas are permanent checkpoints info-icon , manned at all hours, preventing Palestinian movement between them and controlling passage of permit holders such as teachers and schoolchildren. Some 800 Jews live in Avraham Avinu Quarter and Tel Rumeida, on Givat HaAvot and in the wholesale market.

Checkpoints observed in H2:

Bet Hameriva CP- manned with a pillbox
Kapisha quarter CP (the northern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
The 160 turn CP (the southern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
Avraham Avinu quarter - watch station
The pharmacy CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
Tarpat (1929) CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
Tel Rumeida CP - guarding station
Beit Hadassah CP - guarding station

Three checkpoints around the Tomb of the Patriarchs

Mar-27-2024

Michal Tsadik

Hebron - Smadar and Yusei Ja'bari

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Tarqumiya

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The Tarqumiya Checkpoint is one of the largest and busiest checkpoints where people and goods cross into Israel. It is located on the Separation Barrier close to the Green Line, on Road 35 (connecting Beer Sheva and Hebron). It is run by the Israel Defense Ministry’s Crossings Administration with civilian secuirty companies running the day to day operations. The checkpoint is indeed open to vehicles in both directions 24/7, but Palestinians are prevented from crossing in vehicles, except in special cases.

MachsomWatch activists visit the checkpoint as it opens at 3:45 am, in order to observe the daily passage of nearly 10,000 Palestinian workers. The workers arrive from throughout the Southern West Bank. Our activists report on the tremendous overcrowding at this checkpoint; they have observed young men climbing and scrambling on the fences and roofs of the ‘access cages’. This is how the work day begins for those who ‘build the land of Israel’.

updated November 2019

Yata / Southern Hebron hills

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Yatta is a city located in the South Hebron Hills region. It is located in the border zone between the fertile area of Hebron and its surroundings and the desert of the Hebron Hills. Yatta has about 64,000 inhabitants. The surrounding villages are called Masafar Yatta (Yatta's daughter villages). Their inhabitants subsist on livestock and agriculture. Agriculture is possible only in small plots, especially near streams. Most of the area consists of rocky terraces.

Since the beginning of the 1980s, a number of settlements have been established on the agricultural land cultivated by the Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills region: Carmel, Maon, Susia, Masadot Yehuda, Othniel, and more. Since the settlements were established and Palestinians cultivation areas have been reduced; the residents of the South Hebron Hills have been suffering from harassment by the settlers. Attempts to evict and demolish houses have continued, along with the withholding of water and electricity. The military and police usually refrain from intervening in violent incidents between settlers and Palestinians do not enforce the law when it comes to the investigation of extensive violent Jewish settlers. The harassment in the South Hebron Hills includes attacking and attempting to burn residential tents, harassing dogs, harming herds, and preventing access to pastures.

There are several checkpoints in the South Hebron Hills, on Routes 317 and 60. In most of them, no military presence is apparent, but rather an array of pillboxes monitor the villages. Road blocks are frequently set up according to the settlers and the army's needs. These are located at the Zif Junction, the Dura-al Fawwar crossing, and the Sheep Junction at the southern entrance to Hebron.

Updated April 2022

Apr-25-2024

Michal Tsadik

Rahwa - the building they have a demolition order on

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