El-Container
September 2004

You are familiar with "El Container" if you live in the West Bank, traveled through the West Bank, or know someone who has been there. The Container is an Israeli check point virtually separating the northern and southern part of the West Bank. It has become the nightmare of every Palestinian who needs to travel between the north (Ramallah+) and south (Bethlehem and Hebron) regions. Students, workers, worshipers, professionals, medical staff, are all affected by it.

The container checkpoint is located about 10 Km northeast of Bethlehem, on "Wadi El Nar road" (Fire Valley road). As of 1991, Wadi El Nar, a long downhill-windy dangerous road, became the only road Palestinians allowed to use to travel between the northern and southern part of the West Bank. And as of September 2000, only commercial vehicles carrying an Israeli issued permit are allowed to pass through the Container checkpoint.

As a Palestinian passing through this notorious checkpoint, you always face the possibility of being dragged out of the taxi/bus, and beaten senseless by Israeli soldiers for no apparent reasons. You can also avoid taking pictures, unless you want to risk them literarily smashing the camera against your head, before they beat you senseless.

The Israelis occasionally shut down the checkpoint for days at a time, making it impossible for Palestinians to travel. Some take the risk of hiking up a nearby mountain to bypass the container. If they are lucky enough not to be spotted & shot at by Israeli snipers, they catch a cab on the other side of the Israeli imposed separation line.

If you're lucky enough to pass through the container in a bus or taxi, after a wait of anywhere between 1/2 - 3 hours, Qalandia is the next check point. No vehicles are allowed through the Qalandia checkpoint. This means you have to cross the checkpoint on foot to ride a taxi into Ramallah and the northern part of the West Bank. The original 18 Km (half hour) ride from Bethlehem to Ramallah has turned into a 30 Km ride, taking at least 2 to 5 hours of your time.

Traveling to Jordan through the Allenby bridge in Jericho still requires passing through the container. Cars start lining up at 4:00AM. The  container checkpoint opens at 6:00AM.  The taxi/bus then heads to Jericho, only to face another Jericho checkpoint. After a delay of anywhere between half an hour to 3 hours at the Jericho checkpoint, the taxi/bus heads to the Palestinian travelers' rest area. Then starts the process of crossing into Jordan through the Israeli border control, a process often referred to as "a day in hell". The Palestinian rest area holds up to 3000 travelers, and most times is at full capacity. The Israeli border control allows only 20 buses (about 1000 people) to cross to Jordan per day. As a result, Palestinians who do not make it through the border must sleep at the rest area (most of them do so, rather easier than traveling back through the numerous road blocks and checkpoints to their homes in the West Bank).

The suffering continues, and is only expected to get worse once the construction of the separation wall completes.

By Joseph Hazboun

To read more about the container checkpoint, click here