Shaked, Rihan, Wednesday, March 15, 2006, AMObservers: Yocheved J., Anna, N.-S., Neta G. (reporting)7.10 – 10.00 Shaked, 7.10 The gates are open; the pupils go through without inspection. One of the soldiers asks the pupils if they know their number on the list. He explains that if they do not, they will not have a permit on their way back from school. The number will make their passage easier. The soldier says that the children are nice and he loves them. Two women go through on their way to the West Bank, but they will be able to return only through the Rihan CP.07.40: The soldiers lock the gates. We tell them that the Shaked CP is supposed to be open until 08.00; and a soldier answers us saying that they have instructions to close at 07.30, but they waited another ten minutes because the pupils asked them to. They have to leave now in order to guard the school at the Shaked settlement. The soldier who expressed his affection for the Palestinian children before adds that “with all due respect, the children at Shaked are more important.” We waited there until 08.00 and no more pupils arrived.While we were on our way from the Shaked CP to the Reihan CP, we saw a gorgeous rainbow. It seems that the rainbow was meant for another place.08.10: Rihan Very little pedestrian traffic in both directions. When we asked the CP commander, Lieutenant T., about this, he said there was no connection between the thin traffic and the Purim closure at Rihan. All those who have permits for this CP went through anyway.In the Palestinian parking lot, a number of taxi drivers are waiting for fares, and there are some commercial vehicles loaded with vegetables. The permits for transporting the goods arrived in time.A military policeman at the vehicle CP takes away the ID card of one of the people at the CP. He was waiting for it to be returned. We tried to find out the reason for the delay, and we were told that the man had cursed the military policeman and the civilian police had been called in to investigate him. And there is “something else,” too. After a rather long time, the police arrived. The policeman talked with the soldiers first, and after that with the Palestinian. The man was asked to get into the police car, which turned in the direction of the “terminal”. The policemen did not want to answer our questions.10.00: We left the CP before the man was released.In a telephone conversation later on, the man told Anna that he was accused of driving with an invalid license, and also with insulting a soldier. He was released on bail, NIS750 for each offense, and a date was set for his trial.