In the second year of war, a unique 24/7 open market of Palestinian goods continues to thrive — right in the heart of Israel. Prices are often half or a third of Israeli ones, there’s no police presence whatsoever (neither Israeli nor Palestinian), and local Palestinian authorities guarantee full security for Israeli shoppers — even though residents of the village have lived under unbearable conditions for decades and suffer daily from Israeli policies.
This one-of-a-kind place is located in the Palestinian enclave of Barta’a, cut off from the rest of the West Bank by the Israeli separation wall. It was shown to Russian-speaking journalists on a special press tour organized by the Mossawa Center NGO. Entrepreneurial Israeli citizens — both Arabs and Jews — have long known about it. On weekends, the roads leading to Barta’a are jammed with traffic: tens of thousands of Israelis go there to shop. Last year, a Russian-speaking blogger on TikTok showed a butcher shop selling even quails, and reported buying lamb there for just 250 shekels per 10 kilos.
Barta’a has been a divided village since 1949, when a ceasefire agreement split it: the western side went to Israel, the eastern to Jordan. No fence or checkpoint was set up between them — and for decades, residents freely crossed between both sides, as families belonged to the same clan. For 18 years, there was only one violent incident — in which one Israeli policeman and four Palestinians were killed.
In 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank, East Barta’a came under military control, but daily life continued mostly unchanged. After the creation of the Palestinian Authority, residents received Palestinian passports and continued to travel freely into Israel — until the Second Intifada changed everything.
In 2002, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government built the “security barrier,” but chose not to divide Barta’a — instead, the fence was placed three kilometers east of the Green Line, enclosing East Barta’a and several nearby villages within a Palestinian enclave on de facto Israeli territory. After October 7, the wire fence was replaced with a concrete wall.
Residents of the enclave were then required to obtain special permits from Israel’s Civil Administration in order to legally reside in their own homes — a practice virtually unheard of in global legal history. These permits — unlike temporary residence permits — do not allow Palestinians to enter Israel. They merely authorize them to live in their own village, East Barta’a. To visit relatives in the Israeli side of the village, they need yet another special permit. To the east, there’s a wall and a checkpoint — which only operates from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Miss the closing time and you sleep wherever you can. Need emergency medical care in Jenin at night? Pray to survive until morning.
For decades, residents have begged to extend checkpoint hours and be released from their perpetual “curfew,” but in today’s Israeli government, there’s no one even willing to discuss it.
The head of the local council told journalists about the hardships caused by the checkpoint, but clearly did not expect media help. Instead, he stressed the village’s hospitality and invited visitors to the market — which brings in goods from across the Palestinian Authority and serves as Barta’a’s main source of income. The market is open seven days a week, around the clock — unmatched anywhere else in Israel.
Naturally, journalists asked about safety, especially for Israelis shopping at night. The mayor declared it 100% safe — guaranteed by the local council, even though they have no police force. The deputy mayor, who speaks Hebrew, said he personally stays on duty over weekends so that Hebrew-speaking customers have someone to turn to if any problems arise.
Before we left, I asked a local official whether Barta’a residents had ever tried to protest or demand an end to their stateless condition.
“No. Never. No protests,” he said firmly. Then explained: “We can’t help ourselves. Only you can help us.”
By Irina Zhukovskaya, Editor-in-Chief of the Israelinfo News Service
Photo: Elena Rostunova
Published at: https://news.israelinfo.co.il/132881
