I took a trip into al'uds the other day, the first time I've done so since I've been in the West Bank. When traveling to al'uds from the West Bank, the journey is often more noteworthy than the city at the end of it.
In order to get there, you have to go through Kalandia checkpoint, which has been completely (re-)built (?) since the summer. It now resembles an immigration point at an airport (not by accident of course), and even has a little electronic sign saying 'Welcome to Asharot' (The Israeli settlement near by). The checkpoint is now a series of turnstyle gates controlled by shadowy IDF soldiers half hidden behind bullet-proof glass. It's almost like walking through a ghost village, except suddenly a speaker will crackle into life when a soldier wants to see someone's ID. There's even an x-ray machine through which you have to put your bags.
After Kalandia, I got on the bus to al'uds, which was full of school children at that time, and off we went, only to be stopped by a queue of traffic at a flying checkpoint a mile or two further on. It was one of those classic flying checkpoint moments, where they position themselves at the corner of a junction, and then when eventually you are allowed to pass through the junction, they stop you again at another corner. Tiredness or the length of time I've been here, meant that I just sat there and didn't think anything of it at the time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment