Rihan, Tuesday, June 13, 2006, AMObservers: Hedva H, Anna NS (reporting)10:20 – 12:10When we arrived, taxi drivers said, “They opened okay and all crossed, both the women to Barta’a and the men to Shaked.”On the way to the Palestinian parking lot we encountered an old man in a kaffiyeh sitting in the shade of an army hut. He returned last night to his home in Barta’a from visiting a nearby village. At home he discovered that he had lost his ID card and driving license. He had come back today to look for them, thinking that he had left them with the soldiers, but they – after checking here and with the District Coordination Office, and after he had waited more than an hour, according to him – announced to him that nothing was found and suggested that he apply to the DCO for new documents.In all the time we were there, some 40 men and women, families and individuals, crossed to the seam zone. A pair of children whose (sick) father is in Barta’a and (sick) mother is in a nearby village in the West Bank, wanted to get to their father in Barta’a. The first time they were sent back, but after Hedva’s intervention they were allowed to cross. Few crossed to the West Bank.Drivers with no work to do spread an old mattress under a roof in the parking lot and get some enforced rest. Some of them are arguing among themselves, in a good mood, and us among them. Said and his brother Walid – two children aged beyond their years – try to ply us with drink and, with little to do, join in the shade of the idle adults and absorb the depressing atmosphere.An English speaker lays out his distress to Hedva, and asks her to call occasionally: it will make him feel better, so he says.Terrible heat. Desperate people, tired of repeating to us their stories of a hard life, but the distress, fatigue and despair are noticeable in their behavior and tone of voice. From time to time, one of them throws at us: “Do something!” and the feelings of guilt begin to surface.Terrible heat. An embittered driver tries yet again, after countless attempts, to coordinate the transfer of aluminum sheets to Barta’a, after having been permitted to take windows across. Time after time he is refused. Our attempts at mediation don’t help. He is required to cross at Jalama – and this is not acceptable to him. If he had not transferred the windows, okay – but now the windows are there and the sheeting is here. He is very angry.Today, unusually, there are a great many pickups loaded with vegetables and eggs. The soldiers are checking, in parallel, private cars and vegetable vans. The inspection is thorough, slow and wearisome in the stifling heat.At 11:00 inspection stops, for unclear reasons. Six pickups and seven private cars are waiting in the oppressive heat.A police van arrives in the Palestinian parking lot. A soldier clutching a blue ID card of an Israeli Arab family with children, returning from the West Bank, is checking it with the police. The soldier notes that they are “reverse illegals” (?) Attempts to clarify the reason for the delay are greeted with frozen silence. But immediately afterward the Israeli vehicle is released to go on its way, and inspection of a loaded van and a private car in parallel is renewed… after a wait of at least half an hour.As routine returns and the sun roasts us, we leave.