The West Bank Barrier

Profile: Barta’a Sharqiya Enclave

UPDATE JUNE 2005

Totally enclosed enclave, with entry to West Bank via two gates, at Barta’a and at Shaked. Inhabitants of the enclave are now designated ‘long-term residents’ and everyone over the age of 16 is required to obtain a permit to reside in, and travel outside, the enclave. In addition to Barta’a Sharqiya, the enclave contains a number of small villages or ‘khirbets’.

Barta’a Sharqiya has been divided from Barta’a Gharbiya on the Israeli side of the Green Line since 1948, but there are strong social, economic and familial ties. 40% of Palestinians living on the eastern side of the village in the West Bank hold Israeli ID cards. Since the beginning of April 2004 until the end of May, Palestinians with Israeli identity cards living in Israel were not allowed to cross the gates into the West Bank. The situation has now changed, with Arab Israelis being allowed to cross the wall/fence except when there is ‘closure’. Shaked gate is now closed to vehicles, opening for a maximum of thirty minutes per day in contravention of the Israeli government recommendation of four hours. Only school children are able to use this gate. They are kept waiting for hours sometimes by soldiers who refuse to open the gate for them. The only exception to this was the relaxation of the rules during the olive harvest. However, people bringing olives back into the enclave were harassed by soldiers.

No barrier prevents residents from crossing the Green Line into Israel but transgressors risk fines and/or imprisonment. Internal movement within the enclave is also difficult: see under health below. Residents of Khirbet Munther Al Gharbiya have to cross a settler road to access the remainder of the enclave. Women originally from the village of Daher al Malih who have married into families living in villages on the other side of the wall/fence are unable to visit their families in Daher al Mahler because they lack a permit to do so and every petition to the IDF Civil Administration and Liaison office has been refused. On several occasions while explaining new procedures, IDF soldiers at the gates have referred to the enclave as ‘Israel’.

Access/Permits/Gate Issues

Gates

Barta’a

• Barta’a gate is actually a terminal reminiscent of an international border; with two parking areas, a large IDF office, a metal detector, inspection areas, a sliding gate and two additional barriers on one side. Up to ten soldiers are present at most times.

• It is open from 0500-2100 hours daily with emergency access at night. Soldiers, stationed in the watch tower at night have not responded to emergencies in the past, but according to the PA midwife, now contact the IDF DCL in the event of an emergency and the gate is opened after a delay. There are conflicting reports on this issue with some residents saying that they are unable to get the soldiers from the watchtowers to open the gate for them. The IDF have advertised a telephone number that can be used in the event of an emergency. Long delays are common at Barta’a which deals with a large volume of traffic and pedestrians.

• Many Palestinians complain of cruel and degrading treatment at the hands of a few individual IDF soldiers. UNRWA teams have been treated badly at the gate, especially by female soldiers. According to soldiers at the gate, the IDF military police are in charge of the gate, assisted by regular units and occasionally Border Police.

• There is a metal detector at the gate. In the rare event of a breakdown of the machine, there are now female soldiers to conduct a search of female Palestinians.

• The IDF stopped using sniffer dogs at the gate for a year, but in April, they were re-introduced. The village council protested and the dogs were withdrawn.

• Palestinians are not allowed to bring electrical items, clothes or certain fresh foods across the gate. Local shop owners are only allowed to bring five boxes of fruit or vegetables in at a time.

• As of mid April, the IDF refused to allow vehicles to cross the gate unless driven by the person whose name appears on the registration document. This has caused problems for merchants with daily paid workers, for taxi drivers and family members.

• UNRWA medical teams, social workers, operations support officer teams are routinely denied access through the gate because the IDF at the gate maintain that anyone entering ‘Israel’ needs a permit.

Shaked

• Children say that they are afraid to cross the gate because they fear the soldiers. The gate is open between 0700-0715 hours and 1215-1230 hours.

• UNRWA mobile health teams are unable to use this gate because it is closed to vehicles by means of a locked gate which patrol soldiers say they do not have a key for.

• Children say that they are kept waiting at the gate for hours at a time and sworn at occasionally.

• Parents of the children who cross the gate to go to school in Tura, are reluctant to allow their children to go to school in Um Rehan even if they can avoid crossing the wall/fence because they are afraid that settlers will run the children over on the road.

• The metal detector and watch tower have been removed.

Permits

• Residents at first refused to accept the long- term residents’ permits’, but after 25 days of virtual siege relented. Twenty-four refugee families in Munther Al Gharbiya waited seven weeks before their permits were granted.

• The mayor claims that in the summer of 2003, 100 traders changed their addresses in anticipation of access problems at the gate to be eligible to obtain a permit to enter and reside in Barta’a. To the village council’s knowledge, at least 390 persons have applied for a change of address (to Barta’a) to obtain a ‘residence permit’. So far, 140 have obtained it. It is not known whether the others will obtain it, and the municipality knows of several who have been denied the change of address (and consequently, the permit), for ‘security reasons’.

• There is no ‘list’ system in Barta’a, where soldiers at the gate compile a list of people allowed to enter the enclave. Every person who needs to enter the enclave once, (like repairmen) must apply for a permit. This is posing major problems for electrical and telephone repairs and many telephone lines in Barta’a are not working. 15 teachers and two doctors have applied for permits and obtained them.

• Barta’a is not connected to the Israeli water network. The village council requested permits for seven water tankers, but obtained permits only for two. This is not enough for Barta’a, which completely depends on Attil for water provision.

• Three teachers from outside the enclave who were denied permits have found alternative employment east of the wall/fence and have been replaced by other teachers who have been able to get permits.

• Twenty five women from the village who married men from (and are living) outside the area are not granted permits because their identity cards state that they live outside Barta’a and therefore are not eligible to receive a permit.

Health

• Access to specialized health care is severely curtailed, especially for emergency and chronic case. Local and international Specialists from St John’s Eye hospital in Jerusalem were denied entry into the enclave because they could not obtain permission.

Barta’a Sharqiya

The following services are available in Barta’a Sharqiya, the enclave and outside

• Palestinian Authority (PA) PHC Clinic, staffed by midwife only. Covers vaccination, growth monitoring, dressings, injections, dispensing of medication, referrals. Midwife has stopped conducting deliveries due to lack of medical support since the wall/fence was completed. Despite permit, nurse who resides outside the enclave reports routine delays of up to 90 minutes at gates and that medicines have been strewn over the ground after searching.

• The village council has used its revenue from the shop registration fees in Barta’a to fund a new (year old) primary health care clinic. It is staffed by three doctors from Jenin for whom the council has obtained permits to enter the enclave. It is open from 0900 – 2200 hours. The doctors leave by 1730 hours in order to cross the gate before it closes.

• Several babies have missed vaccinations because of pediatrician’s delays.

• General Practice private clinic, staffed by one doctor, cost, 20-50 NIS per consultation. Clinic is in doctor’s house which is under threat of demolition, along with house of pharmacist.

• Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA), an older woman without formal qualifications usually seen in developing countries. Although in recent years ignored by younger women who prefer hospital deliveries, an unlicensed TBA is now operating in Barta’a and delivers at mother’s homes. Of the three women who delivered since completion of the barrier, two were detained at the Barta’a gate, and the one allowed to pass later died from unrelated complications. The other two delivered at home without any invasive treatment, pain relief, or a doctor, one assisted by the PA midwife and one by the TBA. The last woman to give birth at home could not find a taxi driver willing to transport her, anticipating refusal at the gate. However, the midwife now advises the expectant mothers to leave the enclave early and stay with relatives in the West Bank near to medical facilities. Women who have not already left to go to the gate at the onset of labour. For those cases, the gate is usually opened at night after liaison between the IDF DCL and the soldiers at the tower, though not all residents agree on this point.

Barta’a enclave

• Mobile clinic out of Jenin Hospital, every week providing pediatric, obstetric and GP services.

• UNRWA weekly mobile clinic, staffed by family doctor, a nurse, clerk and pharmacist. The Barta’a Sharqiya venue is the local YMCA which does not have running water or examination facilities while venues in other communities in the enclave include private houses and garages. The UNRWA team has been delayed at the gate and refused entry into the enclave.

Health Facilities outside Barta’a.

• Jenin Government Hospital was previously the main referral centre for tertiary care and for deliveries. Attendance there has decreased since the beginning of intifada due to movement restrictions, and residents now prefer Tulkarm, which is nearer. Tulkarm has four hospitals and two ambulances from the city are available for the enclave, but must do ‘back-to-back’ at the Barta’a gates, irrespective of the condition of the patient.

• Yabad UNRWA Health Centre, closest facility for vaccination and family medicine. Open 3 days a week, offers GP, vaccination service, all round PHC, no deliveries. Despite its close proximity and free care, residents of the enclave experience major problems in accessing the facility with the completion of the wall/fence.

• Tura Gharbiya PA Health Centre, outside the enclave, offers limited services, including vaccination. Formally popular due to proximity to ‘khirbets’ but the wall/fence now makes access difficult.

• Anglican Hospital, Nazareth. Ironically, health services in Israel are now much easier to access for enclave residents than West Bank facilities. However, only Israeli ID card holders qualify for health insurance: for West Bank residents service is prohibitively expense and, without a permit, illegal. In addition, few taxi drivers will risk the fines involved in transporting West Bank patients. The Anglican Hospital has been known to waive fees for special hardship cases.

Education

• 14 teachers, from outside the enclave, are routinely delayed at Barta’a gate. Unlike in other enclaves where teachers are allowed in if their names appear on a list at the gate, these teachers require permits which the PA was refusing to accept on their behalf. Now the PA has accepted the permits.

• Children attending the UNRWA school in Yabad (on the West Bank side of the wall/fence) now have to walk and go by car for two hours at a cost of NIS 20 each way, as opposed to a ten minute journey before.

• Since the beginning of the intifada, approximately 100 students from Barta’a who attend university in Nablus, or Bir Zeit rent houses in those places during term time in order to avoid travelling and the subsequent loss of education time.

• On 20 July 2004, the IDF demolished twenty-one structures along the Green Line separating Barta’a s east and west. Large numbers of IDF and Border Police along with civilian contractors and bulldozers arrived at 0500 hours in the village. Clashes took place between young Palestinian men and soldiers. Tear gas was fired into the crowds which, according to local sources, rendered some twenty five people unconscious and caused severe breathing difficulties for others.

• Sound bombs were also fired which set light to animal feed. Plastic- coated metal bullets and some live rounds were also fired, causing six Palestinians to be injured, two of whom were in a serious condition, one losing an eye due to a plastic-coated metal bullet.

• According to local sources, up to forty Border Police and soldiers were injured, six of whom were evacuated to hospital. Three contractor’s vehicles were severely damaged, one of which was gutted by fire and caused a bulldozer to catch fire. Several contractors abandoned their posts and ran away. The only structure that was spared was a sewing factory, the subject of an UNRWA case study. An injunction preventing demolition for five days was granted by the Israeli court.

• Barta’a’s only olive mill was also destroyed. The owner’s brother was allegedly beaten by the IDF when he presented the commanders with an injunction protecting the mill until the court hearing on 5 November. According to local people, the IDF officers told the owner, who was held at gunpoint, that they did not care about the courts and gave the signal to demolish the mill and the $250,000 worth of equipment inside it. The owner stated that the court secretary telephoned the commanders and told them not to demolish the mill. None of the olive harvest can be utilized for oil as it is forbidden to take the olives into Israel and also forbidden to take it across the wall/fence into the West Bank.

• The olive mill generated an income of $50,000 every two years. Before the wall/fence was erected, 1,000 tons of olive oil was produced by the mill. However, after the barrier, only 250 tons was produced due to movement restrictions.

• The mill owner told the IDF officers in charge of the demolition of his building, that his family had lost their land in 1948, his olive trees had been cut down and land taken for a new settler road. He asked the officers what more they wanted? The officers replied that they wanted to drive him off the land.

Socio-economic issues

1. Before the intifada, the majority of the working population had jobs in Israel. The restriction on Palestinian labour in Israel means that unemployment is now an estimated 80 percent, according to the village council. However, commercial activity flourished following the intifada, essentially due to the absence of physical barriers between Barta’a Sharqiya and Barta’a Gharbiya, because the Baqa enclave’s importance as commercial centre declined, following the razing of shops and businesses in Nazlat Issa and after the Jalame checkpoint in Jenin was closed to Palestinians.

2. Barta’a now has 300 registered shops – the majority opening in the past few years - 185 of them on the main commercial street that links the two ‘Barta’as’. Reportedly, 85 percent of the shopkeepers are from outside the enclave. Many of these shopkeepers do not have permits to enter the enclave and are residing there ‘illegally’. In order to return home (once a month or less) they employ the services of Israeli Arabs who transport then to their home villages in the West Bank, via Israel and for inflated fees.

3. Some businessmen from Barta’a Gharbiya in Israel have also opened shops in Barta’a Sharqiya to avoid Israeli taxes (e.g. arnona,) insurance of employees, etc., It is illegal for Israeli ID holders to open or own businesses in the West Bank; it is often done through relatives who are registered in Barta’a Sharqiya. Most shops and businesses now mainly rely on Arab Israeli clientele, for it is too difficult for West Bankers to cross the gate without a permit. This dependence is further aggravated by Barta’a’s residents’ low purchasing power.

4. There are four sewing factories owned by Arab Israelis which employ a total of 600 women, 80 of whom live outside Barta’a and have to overnight in the factories or rented apartments because they do not have permit’ to enter the enclave. The costs of rent are borne by the factory owners. Since many shopkeepers moved their businesses to Barta’a, rents have reportedly experienced a 300 percent increase. This increase has led many shopkeepers to improvise sleeping units in their shops.

5. Barta’a is not self-sufficient and has to ‘import’ all its consumer goods, including water (in summer), which is tankered in from Attil. Since the completion of thewall/fence, transportation costs for vegetables and fruits from the West Bank into the enclave have more than doubled. Each truckload from Jenin to the Barta’a gate costs NIS 100. At the gate, goods are searched by the soldiers and then moved ‘back-to-back’ into vans waiting inside the enclave. The IDF does not allow more than one layer of boxes per vehicle; hence merchants need to rent at least four vans to transport the goods into the enclave, at an additional cost of NIS 50 per van. 100 + (4 x 50) = NIS 300 per trip from Jenin to Barta’a.

6. Consumer prices for vegetables and fruits imported from the West Bank have therefore increased (e.g. a box of tomatoes costs NIS 10 in Jenin, and NIS 30 in Barta’a, bottled gas from NIS 28 in Jenin to NIS 45-50 in Barta’a). Shopkeepers complain that vegetables are often spoiled by the wait at the checkpoints, especially on rainy or too sunny day and must be sold at cheaper prices. It is now cheaper for traders from Baqa Gharbiya (holders of Israeli IDs) to buy goods from Tel Aviv. Although the prices of vegetables are higher in Tel Aviv, profits are also higher because of cheaper transportation costs. Reportedly, 90 percent of the produce available in Barta’a now comes from Israel and 10 percent from the West Bank.

7. Relatives are experiencing major difficulties in obtaining permits to visit Barta’a, which means that weddings, funerals, birthdays and other celebrations are conducted without the extended family. Many people say that they do not know how they will marry their children because as the Mayor stated, ‘nobody wants to send their daughter to a prison’.

8. Barta’a is not an agricultural region and has a limited number of olive groves, with oil used for local consumption. Fifteen local families have lost 150 dunums of agricultural land between them for the building of a new settler road. 600 olive and almond trees were uprooted and destroyed in the second week of May 2004. Shepherds continue to struggle to find enough food and water for their flocks. Fodder is not allowed into the enclave and Ministry of Agriculture officials are also denied access. The local vet is still unable to bring enough medicines across the gate and the poor economic situation means that many farmers are unable to afford essential medicines such as vaccinations, thus weakening their livestock and assets.