Checkpoint misery: Palestinians grind to reach jobs

QALANDIA CROSSING, West Bank | The journey to Jerusalem, for tens of thousands of Palestinians, begins in a dank, trash-strewn hangar.

They move through cagelike passages and 7-foot-high turnstiles to be checked by Israeli soldiers from behind bulletproof glass. The soldiers often yell at them through loudspeakers. They are supposed to work in pairs to speed the lines through, but sometimes one of them is asleep, his feet on his desk.

The Qalandia crossing, the Israelis say, is where potential attackers are filtered out before they can reach Jerusalem on the other side. Palestinians say it’s a daily humiliation they must endure to reach jobs, family, medical appointments and schools.

This main checkpoint between the northern West Bank and Jerusalem is one of the rawest points of friction between Israel and the Palestinians, a symbol of the day-to-day bitterness that grinds between the two sides as the U.S. struggles to relaunch peace negotiations.

Since taking office last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has eased Palestinian movement inside the West Bank, but not into Jerusalem. In recent weeks, he has repeated his vow that Jerusalem will never be divided, angering Palestinians who want the city’s eastern sector, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, as their future capital.

The separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank slices through several of Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods, making Qalandia the only way for 60,000 taxpaying residents to reach their city. They, too, must line up along with tens of thousands of West Bank residents to enter Israel for work — provided they are patient, have permits and don’t arouse suspicion.

For five days, an Associated Press reporter waited with them.

SUNDAY

Hands plunged deep in his pockets to fend off the pre-dawn chill, Ziad Abu Jalil, 36, enters the hangar and joins one of several long lines. He is headed to his $35-a-day job at a Jewish butchery, yanking chickens from cages to be slaughtered according to kosher rules.

Until a decade ago, his commute from his West Bank village 12 miles north would have taken less than an hour. But after the Palestinian uprising broke out in 2000, border checkpoints started going up. The Qalandia crossing grew steadily more arduous, and now Mr. Abu Jalil has to get up at 4:30 a.m.

Outside of rush hour, crossings can take mere minutes. But Mr. Abu Jalil has to be at work just before 7 a.m., and he never knows how long the line at Qalandia will be.

Sometimes, he says, he’s a little late getting to work and is sent home without pay, “and the crossing is always the reason we’re late.”

Even a hint of someone cutting in line is enough to ignite arguments or fistfights. In Mr. Abu Jalil’s line, men stand inches apart, some gripping the coats of those in front of them to keep their place.

The line takes Mr. Abu Jalil into a 15-foot-long cage of metal bars, barely wide enough for a large man or high enough for a tall man to stand upright. At the far end, a turnstile clicks open, letting about 10 people through at a time before clicking shut again.

Once inside: another line to another turnstile, this one leading to a window where Israeli soldiers check IDs. Mr. Abu Jalil waits, then a worker at the front of the line gets turned back. He tells the others they can’t carry lunches through, so Mr. Abu Jalil and others with lunches change lines, starting again at the back.

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