Building the wall and getting hit with it: The IDF allows Arabs to pass through the separation wall without security checks.
The IDF has stopped regular security checks at the Bolem-7 passage through the separation barrier near Oranit in western Samaria, northeast of Petach Tikvah. The unprotected passage connects the Arab village of Azzoun-Atma, adjacent to Shaarei Tikvah, with other Arab villages – and pre-1967 Israel, only two kilometers away.
The fence in that area, which is largely unprotected and non-electronic, renders Azzoun-Atma an enclave amidst four Jewish communities: Elkanah, Etz Ephraim, Shaarei Tikvah and Oranit. There has been talk for years of uniting the four into one municipal council, but residents do not expect it to happen. An Interior Ministry session will be held on the topic a month from now.
Arabs who leave Azzoun-Atma are no longer checked for weapons other than randomly except for days that specific intelligence warnings have been received.
Residents on the Fence
In a recent interview, Gideon Idan, the chairman of the local secretariat of Shaarei Tikvah, was asked about the partition fence, and said, "There are residents who object to it politically, fearing that we will not be able to expand - but no one can deny that it has improved our security." Now that local Arabs can leave without being checked, this may no longer be applicable.
In response to a query by correspondent Haggai Huberman, the IDF Spokesman’s Office said, “Following an operational evaluation in the Central Command, security protection arrangements at Bolem-7 have been modified. It is important to emphasize that those who pass through the checkpoint pass through additional checkpoints as part of the overall protection framework.”