AxisMundi Jerusalem

A Muddy Journey: Sewage Tunnel becomes transit point to Jerusalem

Ordinary women and men, wearing plastic bags on their feet, pulling pants up to knee level, clutch their children to their chests and roam along a 110-metre dark tunnel of sewage to cross from the Israeli-occupied West Bank to East Jerusalem.

Erected under a barrier that Israel is building in the West Bank in defiance of a World Court ruling,  the tunnel serves as a gateway connecting Palestinians from the West Bank to East Jerusalem, a centre for medical, social, religious and other services for the Palestinians.

The passage goes from the village of Old Beit Hanina in the West Bank to the area also called Beit Hanina in what Israel has annexed as part of its Jerusalem municipality. It was first used in early 2004, locals say, when Israel erected the barrier between the two Beit Haninas. What was originally essentially one village became physically divided  in two.  The tunnel was last used during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in late September by people anxious to visit family or to pray in Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque. Israel restricts entry for Palestinians to the city. Since then Israel has blocked off the passage — not for the first time.

Scenes of people’s legs sinking up to the knee in sewage are depicted in  ”Journey 110″ by Palestinian artist Khaled Jarrar, who spent six hours capturing the 12-minute-long clip last year.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip can only enter Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as a capital for their future state, with often hard-to-get permits from Israeli authorities. In 1967, Israel captured the territories including Arab East Jerusalem.

Local officials in Old Beit Hanina estimated the number of people who crossed the passage at up to 150 per day while it was open. “People are not doing it for fun and this is may be the only way to get to Jerusalem,” said Saleh Daajneh, an official in the village.

Tunnel smugglers in Gaza

By: Suhaib Salem When you walk inside the border area between Gaza Strip and Egypt, the first thing you see are hundreds of tunnels, used by smugglers to bring goods into the Gaza Strip. Building any tunnel is a hard task that requires precise care. Tunnel smugglers need to supply the underground passageway with electricity, air and a telecommunications unit.

Working underground is like living on another planet. Going down inside one of these tunnels is a very terrifying venture. Darkness fills the entire tunnel, which runs deep and long. Some small lamps are hung to light the way, cables lie on the ground and intercoms connect one side of the border to the other. These intercoms are used by the smugglers to enable the one who based on the Egyptian side to contact his colleague on the Palestinian side. After walking a few steps inside the tunnel, you hear humming from neighboring smugglers digging their own tunnels. Sometimes one tunnel breaches the wall of its neighbor, putting both in danger of collapse. Different types of tunnels are used for certain tasks. The food smuggling tunnel differs from the tunnel used for smuggling cattle or animals.

Each tunnel is custom built for its own purpose. Tunnels for cattle and animals are longer and deeper to ease the movement of calf or sheep inside the passageway. When Hamas seized power from the rival Fatah movement in 2007, Israel tightened its blockade of the Gaza strip. Today Gazans consider the tunnels a main crossing, and most of their needs — cement, medicine, food, refrigerators and raw materials — are supplied through them. Many shops in the Gaza Strip offer smuggled goods and people come from throughout the territory to shop in the markets of Rafah, on the Egyptian border. The frontier area is frequently bombed by Israel, which says it is trying to stop weapons smuggling into the costal enclave. Egyptian border forces also bomb some tunnels from time to time. Tunnels owners repair their tunnels as fast as possible. Despite the danger, Mohammed Joma, 35, decided to work underground to feed his family. Joma, who was working inside Israel as a labourer before a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000, said: “I face risks every day but the bad circumstances force me to (work in the tunnels). Every day, my wife and my children bid me farewell before going to my work because they think that I may not return to my house. No one likes this work, but I need to build my family’s future.” Joma receives 100 Israeli shekels a day for his labours. Tunnel owners and many businessmen in Gaza are getting rich off the smuggling trade.

Do-It-Yourself Weapons and Water Pipes in Gaza

Apart from the first shipment of cement this week, only a few goods trickle in to Gaza through checkpoints.

Gazans manage by taking advantage of the few things that are readily available–smuggling tunnels and their own ingenuity,  both for better and worse. Here are a couple of the most notable stories I’ve seen this week on how the people of Gaza are carrying on these days.

An article from Ha’aretz today highlights a few of Gaza’s efforts to thrive despite its lockdown conditions. The situation has created a new class of “nouveaux riches of Gaza,” by those who open up new tunnels for smuggling.

Ha’aretz also highlighted potential efforts by Hamas to produce its own weapons since their smuggling channels got choked off : “Technical experts in Israel are divided over whether Hamas can meet this challenge, although its desire to do so is not in question”

Some adaptations are more exploitative. An op-ed by Muhammad Albaba, in the Palestinian paper Al-Ayyam, skewers Gazan vendors who are jacking up prices, not only for smuggled goods, but even goods that are passed  through checkpoints and should not have a price change: “‘It’s the tunnels, sir’–The phrase has become an excuse for raising prices without regulation, and exploiting others with this pretext for their opportunism.” Even goods going through the checkpoint are doubled in price, he says.

Meanwhile, recent entries from the Palestinian blog Kabobfest offer a more comedic take on Gazan adaptations to difficult living conditions under the blockade.  My personal favorite is the do-it yourself argilah (water pipe) guide. It suggests using items no longer of any use under blockade conditions: tea kettles, shower hoses, and stove heads.

Shower hoses, apparently, make a decent argileh hose subsitute: “Who are you kidding, there is barely enough water to drink, so showers are on hold for the time being, let’s use this hose that will not be supplying water to your shower head any time soon.” Step by step instructions, and a picture of the final product, can be seen here.