Occupied Jerusalem
- "I can't imagine Ramadan without visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque, I may get sick by force if I am not able to do so," this is how Khalil Salamin, 29, from the city of Tulkarm (in the northern West Bank), expressed his eagerness to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque and his sadness over the closure of the "openings". Which was facilitating his entry to Jerusalem weekly.
Salamin assures Al Jazeera Net that he will search for new "openings", even if they are far away, and will seek to reach Al Aqsa in all possible ways.
About two years ago, West Bank Palestinians - who are denied entry to Jerusalem - devised a new way to reach the occupied city and pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially during Ramadan, after Israeli barriers and the construction of the apartheid wall prevented that.
The "openings" or gaps that were built in dozens of sites along the security fences and the apartheid wall became the most common way to travel to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan in particular, but the Palestinians' joy in them did not last this year, due to the closure of the occupation, most of them after the wave of armed operations In recent weeks.
Salameen describes the difficulties of the road through the openings and the challenges facing passers-by. Occupation soldiers are waiting for everyone who tries to pass through them, and those who are arrested are subjected to searches and detention for long hours, field investigations, fingerprinting and signing of a pledge not to return, and some of them are subjected to beatings and humiliation.
The Israeli occupation built a separation wall near the Green Line at a cost of more than $5 billion between the territories of the West Bank and the areas of the interior occupied by Israel in 1948, along with Jerusalem, to prevent Palestinians holding a “West Bank identity” from entering through the wall and barriers except with an Israeli permit given to a few numbers and restrictive reasons. Like therapy or sometimes work.
Palestinians cut a barbed wire fence before entering one of the gaps in the separation wall on the way to Jerusalem (Al-Jazeera)
Entry Methods
As for those who are prevented by the occupation for security or age pretexts (Israel determines the ages of the Palestinians who are allowed to enter Jerusalem in Ramadan without the age of youth), they try to break the ban through many ways, including jumping over the wall, which in some sections reaches a length of 7 meters using ladders and ropes, and these The method carries with it the risk of falling, injury and arrest as well.
The other methods are access through “ferries”, which are cylindrical concrete channels that the occupation built at the bottom of the wall, and “security streets” to drain rainwater or sewage, and whoever enters them may drown or suffocate.
its beginning
Not all sections of the separation wall are concrete, as some of them are barbed wires called by Israel the “electronic security fence.” After the occupation canceled the issuance of work permits on the pretext of the spread of the Corona epidemic in 2020, Palestinian workers resorted to penetrating and cutting some sections of the separation fence to reach their workplaces inside, and it is estimated Those attempts were the beginning of the "openings" era.
Later, dozens of openings spread along the separation wall in the villages of Pharaoh and Barta'a (North), Medea and Ni'lin (Central), Al-Samou' and Bethlehem (South).
And they were not limited to workers only, but the Palestinians who went to the interior regions to learn about them, take a walk, and visit Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.
closing holes
Prior to the current Ramadan, the Israeli occupation decided to close most of the openings, and according to eyewitnesses, its soldiers are heavily present around them and fire and sound bombs at anyone trying to approach them.
This campaign comes after a series of Palestinian commando operations inside, and the occupation believes that the martyr Diaa Hamrasha from the town of Yabad (south of Jenin) entered through one of the openings and carried out an armed attack in the Bani Brak neighborhood near Tel Aviv at the end of last March.
Risk in arriving and leaving
But if the Palestinian from the West Bank is able to bypass the walls and reach the city of Jerusalem, the flying occupation barriers will receive him at the gates of the city wall and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and he remains anxious and awaits until he enters the courtyards of the mosque.
There, he “forgets all his fatigue and anxiety,” according to the young Salameen, who said, “All anxiety and fatigue disappear, as if I had literally entered a piece of heaven, and when I was about to leave, my heart was being ripped out of its place.”
Feelings of anxiety are renewed when leaving the mosque, as the way back is fraught with occupation checkpoints and the penalty of arrest or expulsion from the city of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa or deportation to one of the barriers surrounding the city, such as the Al-Zaim and Al-Zaytouna checkpoints.
Salamin states that the occupation intercepted a full bus carrying worshipers from the West Bank to Al-Aqsa last Ramadan, and referred all its passengers for interrogation to Al-Jalama Center near Jenin (in the northern West Bank) and detained them for 14 hours.
He added, "All their concern was not to go to Al-Aqsa Mosque. They told us to go to the beach and take a walk, but not to Al-Aqsa."
Palestinian Fakhr Khalaf recounts the dangers of crossing from the besieged West Bank to Jerusalem (communication sites)
serious fun
In turn, the young man, Fakhr Khalaf, 36, from the village of Rantis (west of Ramallah), spoke about his experience of entering Jerusalem through the “openings.” He says that he must pass two openings through two barbed wires, one from the West Bank side and the other from the inside, and between them is a full-fledged security street. With surveillance cameras and patrols of the occupation army.
Moments full of enthusiasm and anticipation as described by Khalaf while crossing the opening and crossing the street before the arrival of the occupation soldiers and jogging long distances in the bushes, amid fear of being shot at at any moment, all the way to the bus whose driver is waiting on the other side to take him to Jerusalem after paying a sum of money up to Average to $30 per person.
He added, "I did not leave a way but tried it to enter Al-Aqsa, I jumped from the separation wall and sustained fractures, and entered from the ferry that requires physical fitness to pass through, then I tried openings from different places and he almost caught me repeatedly, but I always survived. It is a fun and dangerous adventure at the same time, but it An important choice for those who were prevented from entering Jerusalem."
Palestinians of all ages face the same difficulties, and Khalaf says that on the orphan Friday of last Ramadan, he walked fasting long distances under the sun, and witnessed the suffering of women, children and the elderly.
He said, "There is a hidden matter that links us to Al-Aqsa, before which measures of age and health disappear and physical calculations fall. An elderly woman told me that day: I went back as a girl when I entered Al-Aqsa."
Palestinian Wafaa Hemeidat was insulted and detained by the occupation and returned to enter Jerusalem and pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque (Al-Jazeera)
Insult and terror
The phrase "When we reach Al-Aqsa, all the trouble disappears" is unanimously agreed upon by Al-Aqsa devotees, and Wafa Hamidat, 21, from the village of Bani Naim, Hebron district (south of the West Bank), is repeated in her talk to Al Jazeera Net about the difficulties she faced while crossing the openings.
On one occasion, Hamidat organized a visit to Jerusalem for the girls, and as they crossed the opening, the occupation caught two of them, and they were all insulted and insulted, before being detained for long hours.
Hemeidat says, "They told us: What brought you to our land? This is ours. When will you leave forever? They dragged us towards their military vehicles, all to intimidate us from trying again, but all of this made me more determined and desire to reach Jerusalem."