Checkpoints, Gates and Terminals – Driving racist ghettoization in the 21st century Credit: Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. Date: January 7th, 2006.
Above: Fortified checkpoints (“terminals”) and gates are a key element of the Apartheid Wall and the ghettoization of the Palestinian people. Racist oppression and daily humiliation is intensifying as the Occupation builds a series of fortified checkpoints. Spread throughout Palestine they control and regulate all movement. This picture reveals an overview of Qalandiya fortified checkpoint and the ghettoization of Ramallah and Qalandiya.
Above: Humiliation and frustration characterize daily life. With Orwellian control and domination, the Occupation continually subjugates Palestinians to the status of animals being herded through gates and doors. The picture shows the old Qalandiya checkpoint entrance.
Above: This shows the construction of the new Qalandiya fortified checkpoint. It is built on freshly confiscated Palestinian lands. These gates and fortified checkpoints are built with to divide the Palestinian Bantustans and to leave people with a future of ghettos and closures.
Above: “Welcome to the New Terminal.” A new Palestinian tragedy is being built by the destruction by the Occupation. The checkpoints seek to destroy Palestinian self-esteem, spirit of resistance and movement. Yet, against the Zionist intentions, these checkpoints and gates spur new forms of struggle.
Above: A complex of revolving metal doors, metal detectors and a maze of metal corridors comes at an estimated cost of NIS 120 – 170 million per fortified checkpoint.
Above: Palestinian cars wait for hours on end by the fortified checkpoints surrounded by Walls and Sniper towers. Individuals using the terminal on a daily basis suffer a routine of abuse.
Above: The exit of the Qalandiya fortified checkpoint (Ramallah Ghetto) leads to nearby Al-Ram Ghetto. Isolation of Palestinian communities is a corner stone of the Zionist project to ethnically cleanse the land, to annihilate Palestinian identity and struggle, and to gain complete and totalitarian control over all of Palestine.
Above: This fortified checkpoint is built for Bethlehem Ghetto. The Occupation has declared that 36 different checkpoints will be built at an estimated cost of $27-$38 million. The huge investment is justified by the checkpoints ensuring the closure of the ghettos and making social, economic and cultural life impossible for Palestinians. It creates the facts on the ground for Zionist visions of “final status” and determines the "new" borders on Palestinian land.
Above: The entrance of this fortified checkpoint in Bethlehem reflects the level of control the Occupation seeks over Palestinian life and land. The fortified checkpoint and gate systems seal the construction of the Apartheid Wall here and institutionalize the ghettoization of the Palestinian people.
Above: The architecture of the fortified checkpoints. Anti-bullet windows and invisible soldiers, controlling and deciding the fate of Palestinians, are features repeated in all fortified checkpoints. This infrastructure on the Wall belies the Occupation lie that the Apartheid Wall is “temporary” measure.
Above:The turnstile doors, metal detectors and a maze of metal corridors form the common feature to all checkpoints. See here the Bethlehem Ghetto fortified checkpoint (left) and the Qalqiliya checkpoint for Palestinian labor (right).
