‘It’s not a problem any more’ : Israel’s increasingly porous West Bank fence | Israel

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  • ‘It’s not a problem any more’: Israel’s increasingly porous West Bank fence | Israel | The Guardian

    That is really strange but apparently, that is.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/21/its-not-a-problem-any-more-israels-increasingly-porous-west-bank-fence

    Israel appears to be turning a blind eye to Palestinians illegally clambering through holes in the multi-billion dollar barrier
    Bethan McKernan
    Bethan McKernan and Quique Kierszenbaum in Shuweika, West Bank

    It’s 6am, and the espresso machine at an unusual new business enterprise is whirring.

    Proprietor Mohammed set up his breakfast kiosk near the West Bank town of Shuweika three weeks ago, and so far trade is good: hundreds of people pass by every day on their walk to work, picking up bread, cucumbers and tomatoes as well as coffee and cigarettes.

    Two years ago, Palestinians entering this 200-metre-wide part of the militarised “seam zone” between Israel’s West Bank separation barrier and the 1949 armistice line would have been shot at by Israeli soldiers. They still patrol just a few metres away. But on a bright March morning, a steady stream of commuters were walking by Mohammed’s new outfit and clambering through a nearby hole in the fencing, the majority on their way to work in illegal construction, cleaning and agriculture jobs in Israeli communities on the other side.