JERUSALEM -

Hussein Alqam, a resident of Shuafat refugee camp, east of occupied Jerusalem, was unable to join his work in the city yesterday, Sunday. Israel, coinciding with the martyrdom of 4 Palestinians in the West Bank.

For Alqam, the closure of the barrier is not a new event. Since the barrier was turned into a "crossing" - according to the Israeli description - the occupation has come to control the area inhabited by about 130,000 Palestinians, most of whom hold Jerusalem IDs.

Alqam told Al Jazeera Net, "My house is more than 7 minutes away from the city of Jerusalem, but because of the inspection procedures, I need to reach the checkpoint for more than an hour."

The barrier forms the fourth side of the wall that surrounds the town of Shuafat, the camp that was built on its outskirts, the town of Anata, and the neighborhoods between Ras Khamis, Ras Shehadeh and Dahiyat al-Salam. Closing it means besieging and isolating the entire area.

The occupation arrested 3 Palestinians from several neighborhoods in Jerusalem on suspicion of their involvement in carrying out the armed attack on Shuafat Checkpoint (French)

From a temporary checkpoint to an "international crossing"

The occupation began erecting the barrier temporarily during the second intifada through the presence of military patrols and vehicle inspections, and with the start of construction of the wall around the area in 2002, the barrier turned into a semi-permanent one, but without concrete construction.

In 2009, the occupation authorities officially announced the transformation of the temporary barrier into an “international crossing” - that is, a building separating the lands of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem from the areas of the West Bank. Work continued on expanding the barrier, building manholes, vehicle paths, watchtowers, and electronic gates for more than 4 years.

With the closure of the barrier, the residents of that area are transformed into prisoners in an area isolated by the wall from the West Bank, and from Jerusalem by the barrier.

The barrier consists of 3 main lanes, the first for pedestrians through electronic check gates, the second lane for buses that are also subject to strict inspection, and the third for private vehicles.

The occupation authorities expanded the barrier and built manholes, watchtowers, and electronic gates (French - archive)

The soldiers control these paths, and on some days the occupation opens them completely, and on other days it opens one path for the three groups, which creates a suffocating crisis at the checkpoint and impedes the access of more than 10,000 Jerusalemites to their work areas in Jerusalem and the 1948 territories.

Alqam passes through the lane designated for private vehicles, and in this lane there is a detection device on the vehicle registration plate. If there are any violations on the vehicle, the person is arrested and interrogated at the police station located at the checkpoint.

When the vehicle arrives at the place where the soldier is located at the checkpoint, personal IDs are checked, and if young men are traveling in the vehicle, they are removed from the vehicle and fully searched.

The occupation controls the area inhabited by about 130,000 Palestinians, most of whom hold Jerusalem identity cards (Getty Images)

The barrier took control of large lands, and the occupation later worked to build what it called “integrated service centers,” which include a police headquarters and offices for ministries and other offices affiliated with the occupation municipality.

This building, although it seemed to facilitate the movement of Palestinians with Jerusalem identity cards, was a tool to control them and impose abusive measures against them.

"The checkpoint is an ambush for phishing traffic violations against vehicles, and campaigns for Israeli tax teams," says Alqam.

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Today 8/10/2022


The Israeli occupation forces brutally detain a Palestinian woman in the vicinity of Damascus Gate in Jerusalem in Palestine.#Jerusalem #Friday #Gaza #free #FreePalestine #Jerusalem #freedom #humanity pic.twitter.com/6x7xqaNk5z

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permanent trigger point

All these circumstances create a charged atmosphere that often develops in confrontations and pursuits of young people and school students and beating them, leading to direct shootings, and the death and wounding of a number of Palestinians.

Activist Suhaib Masalmeh says that the checkpoint "has turned into a point of provocation and persecution of the residents of the area," stressing that at times "it is forbidden to pass through the checkpoint due to the mood of the soldiers." On the same day, he goes to another checkpoint and is allowed to pass normally.

Masalmeh referred to the inhumane attitudes of the soldiers at the checkpoint, chasing school students, provoking women with body searches, and disregarding humanitarian cases.

He added that when his grandfather died in 2020, the soldiers prevented the mourners from accompanying his body, and closed the checkpoint after the vehicle carrying the body passed, forcing them to delay the burial procedures until they were able to reach the cemetery from another checkpoint.

The occupation continues the siege of the Shuafat and Anata refugee camp (French)

The Palestinian activist, as well as other residents of the camp, remembers the death of a child in 2016 when a soldier fired directly at the child, suspiciously during his inspection of the insulin pump installed on his body.

Segregation par excellence

There is a fear among the residents that the checkpoint will turn into a tool to isolate them and separate them from their Jerusalem surroundings, which is what happened during the day when the people of the area were completely imprisoned and their lives disrupted, says Munir Nusseibeh, director of the Community Action Center of Al-Quds University.

Nusseibeh continued in his interview with Al Jazeera Net, "What is happening is part of the policy of collective punishment, and subjugating the Palestinians by notifying them that they are under surveillance, and that an action by an individual will punish all members of the region."

Nusseibeh compares two types of checkpoints erected around the city of Jerusalem, the first for the passage of Jerusalemites only, such as the Shuafat and Qalandia checkpoints, on which the occupation practices various methods of humiliation and obstruction through humiliating inspections. Vehicles, and does not include any pedestrian paths or electronic checks.

The origins of the Palestinian refugees in Shuafat camp go back to 55 villages belonging to the areas of Jerusalem, Lydda, Jaffa and Ramle (Getty-Archive)

He added that "the occupation devotes all methods to impede the life of the Palestinian communities surrounding the city of Jerusalem, in return it provides facilities to the settlers by allocating secondary roads and bridges."

According to Nusseibeh, this image is the accurate description of the apartheid system with the domination and discrimination of one group of the population at the expense of another.