Aanin, Shaked, Rihan, Baka, Tuesday, November 7, 2006, AMObservers and reporters: Netta G, Shula B06:40 – 11:15Aanin agricultural checkpoint, 07:00Fewer men, more women and many small children passing from Aanin village into the seam zone to pick olives. We are immediately surrounded by people wanting to pass papers to the team working on removal of GSS prohibitions on transit to the agricultural lands, or to present us with other problems.1. A young woman with a two-day-old baby in her arms says sadly and with exhaustion: “I received a permit for olives, but I’m after childbirth. I don’t have the strength to work. They won’t give my husband a permit. He’s prohibited, and we don’t know why. Who will pick our olives? Help me.”The soldiers use no discretion in their judgments. Doesn’t pass – that’s it.2. Today the soldiers passed all the permit holders and one of them was even happy to take us to the Araka Gate, which we were seeking. We explained that he is forbidden.On our way from there, we took the young mother and her friend to their olive grove. In the car there was a jubilant and inquisitive conversation. “Next week don’t forget to bring a jar for olives.” The day will come when the only occupation of the area will be olives, inshallah. Shaked-Tura, 07:15 Many people, adults and children, crossing – tractors too.1. An older man from Ein Sahla (Wadi Ara) is waiting for his daughter on the west side of the checkpoint. The daughter has an Israeli ID, but she lives with her husband in Tura in the West Bank. She wants to come out to Umm el-Fahm to have her son vaccinated under her Israeli health insurance. The soldiers refuse (“No Arabs with Israeli IDs cross here.”) They send her to Jubara). Her husband says: “Sometimes they allow it, sometimes they don’t.”2. Students are hurrying to matriculation exams and to university. We speeded up their check and transit.3. A group of volunteers from France who have come to help pick olives are delayed at the checkpoint. The soldier refuses to pass them, and attempts to liaise between them and the District Coordination Office – including the international groups representative – do not help. They stay at Tura and help with the olive harvest there. The locals host them and they sleep at the council building.4. An older man from Tura, who brought the French group to the checkpoint, asks us to help find out why he is prohibited from passing to pick his olives in a plot parallel to and across the fence (the fence bisected his land). His son later tells us that at noon a DCO officer was at Shaked, took the father’s details and checked up on him at the DCO, then told him that he could see no problem, and he should go to the Salem DCO to get a permit. The son was happy and full of hope (he is convinced that we had something to do with it). We mostly heard the “come and go” routine, the depressing ring of empty promises that the representatives of the army at the enclave checkpoints love to cast into the air. “Go to Salem,” “Go through Jalama,” “Travel to Jubara” – and, above all, go away from here… Rihan-Bartaa, 08:00 Ten pickup trucks waiting in the Palestinian parking lot to transfer goods. The soldiers are working, polite, but everything is oh, so slow.1. Perhaps ten plastic barrels full of pickled olives returned to the parking lot. The soldiers insist on checking all the contents and, until they bring an empty barrel to empty out the full ones – they are not going to allow anything through. The merchants are irritated, but Ibrahim, “the boss,” says “it’s a pity to get angry, they’ll bring an empty barrel and it will pass.”2. An old woman sits on the pavement, head in hands, seems to be suffering. What happened? She has no money for drugs and is diabetic. Completely helpless, we asked Walid to bring her water.3. While the soldiers at the vehicle checkpoint are “working,” the entry gate of the terminal is closed. Ten people have already been waiting 20 minutes: the soldiers are at breakfast.The checkpoint commander in the vehicle area says, “It’s not my domain.” The soldiers at the terminal avoid talking to us. While we’re trying to move things, the gate reopens.Baka 10:45 Like what happens at Shaked, the locals who are “listed” can pass, as can schoolchildren and people with special permits.The X-ray machine stands idle by the high wall – another monument to waste of money and the stupidity of the Occupation.