From the Karama Crossing to the Iron Gates: The Weapon of Law Against Suffocation

Author

Raed Abu Eid

In the West Bank, the (Karama/Allenby) crossing is not an ordinary outlet, but the only artery that connects three million Palestinians to the world. When Israel justified its closure or limited its hours from eight in the morning until two in the afternoon, it was not a logistical measure, but a collective punishment affecting healthcare, education, trade, and family reunification. However, this same policy is repeated internally through the iron gates at the entrances of villages, cities, and camps, which turn communities into isolated islands. According to OCHA, there are 942 checkpoints and barriers, more than 40% of which are iron gates, with 120 new gates in 2025 alone. In the Al-Arroub camp, four gates control a camp that houses more than 14,000 people. In Al-Fawwar, the camp has been closed since October 2023 and is only opened intermittently. These are not security measures, but systematic strangulation engineering.

The Israeli Airports Authority cited a shortage of staff and logistical problems, claiming that Jordan only sends 50 buses daily, which the Palestinian defense denied outright. The Israeli Supreme Court later refused to state that the limited hours achieve a fair balance. Thus, the justifications reveal themselves to be political rather than technical.

At the heart of the confrontation, Palestinian businessman Nasar Nasar, head of the Coordinating Council of Private Sector Institutions, filed a petition before the Israeli Supreme Court against the policies of closure and restriction, demanding an extension of working hours and the opening of the crossing. The court partially responded, obliging the Airports Authority to submit a report on staff recruitment and extended actual working hours. Although the decision was not complete, it constituted a judicial acknowledgment that the status quo is unacceptable, and a precedent that can be repeated.

This experience carries a central lesson: Israeli courts, despite their connection to the occupation system, are not immune to influence when presented with well-documented files of numbers and facts. Human rights organizations such as "Hamoked," "Adalah," and "B'Tselem" have done the same with the iron gates and the wall, through petitions to force the state to provide its justifications and expose the falsehoods of security pretexts. Even when some petitions are rejected, merely forcing the authorities to explain themselves before the judiciary constitutes pressure and exposure.

Most importantly, the struggle does not stop at Israeli courts. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits arbitrary restrictions on civilians, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees freedom of movement, while the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in 2024 confirms the illegality of the occupation and calls for the opening of crossings. This legal accumulation can be transformed into lawsuits before international and local courts, as well as into diplomatic and human rights pressure.

Palestinians are not asking for a privilege, but a right to live. Every celebratory act of repression — from reducing the hours at the Nabi crossing to erecting an iron gate at the entrance of a village — is subject to undermining if all means are used: law, media, popular movement, and diplomacy. A people that loves life will always find a way, and knows no path of despair. The battle over crossings and gates is a battle for existence itself, and a living people that loves life never surrenders.