More and more Palestinians attempt to circumvent checkpoints 

Date: 14 / 07 / 2007 Time: 14:52

Nablus – Ma'an – 

"Al Allaffa", which literally means "on the curve", is a phrase one may hear Palestinians utter more frequently, as of late in Nablus.

The phrase is used when Palestinians approach an Israeli occupation military checkpoint or roadblock and are forced to get out of the car and stay on the sidewalk until they are allowed to cross.

They often have to wait long hours before they can cross, if they are even allowed to cross, as they can be refused passage because they are too young or simply because Israeli occupation soldiers do not like them. Palestinians have started to look for other ways to get from one place to another, without having to pass through roadblocks and other barriers that prevent the freedom of movement.

This is especially the case around Huwwara checkpoint, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank. Palestinians report their experience here as one of the worst of the 500+ barriers in the West Bank.

Instead of waiting in line, they go to drivers who are waiting, sometimes hundreds of meters away from the checkpoint, to take them to their destinations without having to go through the checkpoints.

Abdullah from Nablus, aged 25, told a Ma'an reporter that, when was attempting cross the checkpoint he had to wait for two hours. Every time he tries to leave Nablus, he is prohibited from passing, because he is younger than 35.

He said ""Al Allafa" means that we have to pay more to the drivers who take us beyond the barriers over dirt roads, so as to circumvent them, instead of walking through the checkpoints to the other side."

An additional problem is that, just six kilometers from Huwwara checkpoint is another barrier called Yetzhar, so that Palestinians have to find another driver who will take them around the second barrier.

To add insult to injury, there is a third barrier, Zatara, which Palestinians have to navigate.

Abdullah is an accountant, working in Ramallah. He is married and has two children. Despite his need to work, so that he can provide for his family, Israeli soldiers regularly refuse him passage at the checkpoints.

Israeli soldiers are aware of the 'allaffa' phenomenon, but they do not act to prevent it. "They intend to make us suffer, it has nothing to do with security, as we are passing and they see us."

Abdullah noted that all the promises made by Olmert to Abbas to remove some of the roadblocks and checkpoints at the summit in the Sharm al Sheik resort in Egypt "were false and baseless."

 

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