Scott Smith, a South African Ecumenical Accompanier based in Jayyous, submitted the following detailed chronology of a morning at the northern gate in the West Bank "separation barrier", which completely encircles the town of Qalqiliya. The views expressed herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the SACC or the WCC. See below for more information on the EAPPI programme.

03:55 - EAPPI team arrives at the terminal

03:57 - Soldiers unlock the gates

04:02 – The turnstile is opened. People can now start entering the terminal. At the time of opening there are approximately 300 people waiting; only 2 of them women.

Between 04:05 and 04:42 the turnstile is occasionally locked; red light. We do not consider this a problem as there are a large number of people passing through and this is commonly done to alleviate pressure inside. Once there is sufficient space inside the turnstile was opened again.

04:42 – Pressure inside the terminal is high and the turnstile is closed for an extended period.

04:55 – Machsom Watch [a group of Israeli women who monitor checkpoints] first calls EAs on the Palestinian side. This morning they have come to the terminal to see what happens for themselves. We report that it is calm but while speaking, the gate is rushed and the pushing starts. This was unnecessary as the line was still moving. During this time there is a constant push towards the one turnstile. The old men and women simply move out of the way as the younger men push and climb over each other in an effort to get closer to the gate.

This kind of situation can be easily avoided through some simple changes in the infrastructure of the gate system:

1. Have more entrance turnstiles
2. Create a queue guide, such as you would find at a bank or post office. This would make it impossible to rush the gate, thus avoiding injuries and chaos.

5:45 – From about this time there was a decrease of people and the pressure of the rush was alleviated. Some of the Palestinian workers started to self-organise and began to police the queue.

06:10 – By this time a queue was formed again. More workers have started to arrive and the queue quickly stretched back to the food stalls for about 80 meters. However, there appeared to be delay inside the terminal. Machsom Watch calls and says there are only 12 people exiting the terminal per minute. With the number of people building up it was not expected that the queue would stay organized. Only one metal detector is working and only three hand-print and permit stalls are operational.

07:05 – A second push occurs.

From this time there is no further organizing of the queue. However it did not look like the first turnstile was closed unnecessarily. When the terminal was full they closed it, when the pressure was alleviated inside it was opened again to allow the next batch of people to fill the terminal to capacity.

Shortly after 07:00 a large number of women and children arrived at the terminal. It is suspected they were there to visit family members in prison organized by the ICRC and there were large buses waiting for them on the other side. The problem is that they only succeeded in crossing the terminal closer to 09:00. This kind of delay renews the call for more turnstile gates while reserving one for women and children or the elderly and disabled only.

08:40 – All are cleared through the first turnstile.

Although all the Palestinians were cleared through the first turnstile we could still see some queuing to go through the metal detector at 09:00. This delay was frustrating and many of the people thought we could do something to speed the process up and they constantly asked us to do so.

Extra notes of interest:

• It is estimated the number of workers today exceeded 5000.
• We counted only 3 men coming back through the gate. We could not determine what the reasons were due to the language barrier. There were no English speakers present at this time.
• Machsom Watch came to see the terminal for themselves. This was particularly useful and we managed to talk to each other through the fence.

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) was launched in August 2002. Ecumenical accompaniers monitor and report violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, support acts of non-violent resistance alongside local Christian and Muslim Palestinians and Israeli peace activists, offer protection through non-violent presence, engage in public policy advocacy, and stand in solidarity with the churches and all those struggling against the occupation. The programme is coordinated by the World Council of Churches.

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works co-operatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by General Secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist Church in Kenya.

For more information contact the WCC Media Relations Office
Tel: (+41 22) 791 64 21 / 61 53
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