Anabta, Jubara, Ar-Ras, Sunday, 9.7.06 PM Observers: Aliya S., Susan L. (reporting) Anabta 16:30 — what a difference from last time! The two relaxed soldiers, baseball caps, no helmets, have time to tell us where to look for the injured kitten first spied by another MachsomWatch shift, no vehicles going into Tulkarm, hardly any checking of Palestinian IDs. On the other hand, Palestinian Israeli IDs (blue) are thoroughly looked at, and the telling piece of paper, with its often worn photo copy of the ID of the family member about to be visited, is a requirement to pass the checkpoint. A number of cars are turned around, many more, full of small children, are waved on their way, complete with pleasant greeting from the soldiers. 16:55 — there’s even a cool wind in the hot sunshine, and it’s so quiet, one can hear the flapping pennants in the stiff breeze, blue smoke curls up from a brush fire on the formerly open pathway to Rameen (now, of course, blocked), and the smells of that brush fire waft over to the checkpoint. In the vicinity, also far off, a tractor is ploughing the hard, dry earth, seen – better by the soldier than by the MachsomWatchers, as the latter trains his gun’s sights to his eye and observes the peaceful scene through them. A truck full of sheep and just one goat pass from Tulkarm, no huge semitrailers today at all.As we leave, there are six vehicles coming from Tulkarm, efficiently and quickly checked by the two soldiers on the far side of the roadway and two on the side where we’ve been standing.17:25 JubaraA line of vehicles, as is now usual, waiting to be checked to get into Israel proper, but we make our way to the southern side of the checkpoint, open the gate leading up to the hamlet on our own, and nobody pays any attention. When the “back to back” operation for the ailing kitten is pulled off, true, a soldier hurries over to the arriving MachsomWatcher’s car, but the “transfer” (in the opposite direction from what many would prefer) is achieved without a hitch.17:30 Ar-RasThe soldiers at Gate 753 are in a good mood, don’t complain about the heat, even offer us water. On being asked about the situation on the other side, in Ar-Ras, they respond cheerfully, “We’re here, not there” (which might be a good motto for what’s going on generally in the country today). Three other soldiers are at the three horizontally placed concrete cubes. Below, on the steep, bright white stony hill, by the silvery bright olive trees, heavily coated with summer dust, is an odd assortment of seven or eight vehicles, of all shapes and sizes, including a hay wain. Pedestrians dismount from taxis or minivans, make their way through the heat and the dust to the taxis further south, on the way to the village up the hill. 17:55 — on leaving, we learn that the soldier atop his sentry pillar won’t watch tonight’s World Cup finals, has no interest in football, unlike the young men gathered around Abu Maher’s shop in the hamlet: they know what’s going on, they care, will certainly watch, and they’re for the same side winning as this MachsomWatcher!