The Checkpoint Bag is designed by Areej Ashhab, a Palestinian architect and researcher based in Jerusalem. Her work is concerned with territorial practices and the relationship between community, landscape and culture. The Checkpoint Bag is made in collaboration with the Jelld workshop in Hebron.

The design is inspired by the designer's unrelenting experiences of going through Qlandiya checkpoint. This is one of hundreds of checkpoints that Palestinians have to go through to get on with their daily lives, like going to work, taking your child to a doctor, visiting a relative, going to school or university and so on. The checkpoints erected by the Israeli military occupation are purposely designed to make people wait in cramped lines inside ‘hi-tech’ cages to prepare their identification cards for inspection, to remove metallic items on their bodies and go through demeaning ‘security’ checks. In many cases, Palestinians encounter newly-erected cement blocks and checkpoints on their way to their homes or work. This situation mutates the daily life of the communities who move between the segmented parts of their homeland and puts their bodies and private items into constant vulnerability.

The Checkpoint Bag is a statement as well as a practical bag.

More than just a statement piece with its good design and quality, It actually carries a statement within itself! In the back of the bag there are inserted key shape cutouts. These keys can be seen only on the security scanning screen. Keys for Palestinians represent the right of return to their homes and land. Palestian refugees kept their home keys since the Nakaba in the hope they will return to their homes.

The Checkpoint Bag is very practical, with pockets and compartments. On the front there are 3 different pockets that can be used to keep your most essential items handy to reach. The back is padded for comfort and it has a zipped pocket to fit a tablet or laptop. As well as straps to carry it on your back, there are two handles to carry by hand, and making it extra practical is a handle strap at the bottom of the bag, which gives easy reach into the pockets while it is on your shoulder.

This bag comes with a black cotton tote bag with the brand name on it : theblacksac - الحقيبة السوداء

Material: Leather sourced from Palestine. Silver metal zippers

Dimensions:
H: 37 cm
W: 28 cm
D: 16 cm