Security tightened in Israel amid Passover preparations
Posted March 25, 2013 6:41 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
With the Jewish festival of Passover due to start at sunset on Monday, security at checkpoints separating Israel from the West Bank were closed to pedestrians and all vehicles were subject to stringent checks.
Queues of traffic built up at crossings near Bethlehem and Ramallah as Israeli security checked all vehicles entering the Jerusalem area.
Most Palestinians who have permission to work in Israel need to cross the checkpoint on foot.
For Ahmed Janazreh, a resident of Al Aroug refugee camp near Hebron, crossing the checkpoint from the West Bank in Bethlehem to Jerusalem is a daily necessity, it can take Janazreh up to two hours to cross the border which he does early to avoid the queues, but he says the closure means he cannot work.
“Today I came here and I was surprised that there is a closure and that makes me suffer because this week I hardly worked so didn’t earn very much.” he said.
In Jerusalem’s Mahaneh Yehuda market in the centre of the city, shoppers arrived early to buy fresh produce ahead of the religious holiday.
Security, always a visible presence in the Holy City, was more prominent as armed soldiers patrolled the busy market lanes.
Passover, known as Pesach in Hebrew, is the commemoration of the Israelites being freed from slavery in Egypt by God over 3,000 years ago. The story says that the Israelites had to leave so quickly that they didn’t have time to wait for their bread to rise, so to mark this, Jews observing Passover do not eat leavened products, which they call chametz. All houses must be completely clear of chametz before Pesach begins, traditionally using a candle to search for the chametz and a feather to sweep it up.
Passover is a week long holiday, with the main celebration taking place from sunset on Monday until sunset on Tuesday.
