Ar-Ras, Anabta, Thursday, 3.05.2007, pmObservers and reporters: Debrah L. and Roni C.Summary:Ar-Ras – Horrible heat, horrible pollution, horrible congestion, and horrible harassment of vulnerable civilians and of an idle dog.Anabta – “renovation and upgrade” work was completed at 1600.Ar-Ras 14:35The gate in Jubara isn’t locked and a soldier arrives promptly to open it for us.At the schoolchildren’s gate, a soldier reports that theirs is the same unit that was stationed there before the reserve-duty soldiers.From 14:58 to 15:31, 55 vehicles passed through from the north. That is, an average of 6 vehicles a minute. When asked, one of the soldiers responds that “the Anabta checkpoint is closed.” And how are things here? “A mess!”As we arrived at the checkpoint there was a change of shifts. For ten minutes, lots of soldiers run around the checkpoint, all of them wearing helmets, a fact that doesn’t help speed up the inspection process, which is totally stuck. Before and after the change of shifts none of the soldiers wore a helmet. The inspection process didn’t come to a complete halt but slowed down considerably.After the change of shifts, all soldiers were replaced except for the dog trainer and the dog. The tortured dog (37 degrees Celsius, dust clouds, and diesel fuel stench), with a metal mouth block, was stretched on the ground in the station post throughout our stay there. The dog trainer occasionally mounts the buses with another soldier. While we were present, no people were taken off and there were no detainees, other than the “standard” detention by the roadside while the soldiers take the IDs to the elevated booth to confirm that its owner is “qualified” to move on. When asked whether more than one soldier can inspect the vehicle to speed the queue on, a second lieutenant responds: “I’m just here to see what’s going on and I’m leaving immediately.”From direction south – no inspection. Lots of huge trucks with trailers that, finding it impossible to make the sharp turn, block the entire intersection with their turning maneuvers. Each of these trucks takes away around 4 minutes in which the checkpoint is more than normally blocked. We try to guess where these huge trucks, carrying a load over 7 meters tall, are coming from. Did they drive through the tiny village of Beit Lid with its crowded, narrow alleys? Or rather did they pass through the tunnel under apartheid road 5, near Azun?From direction north – 23 vehicles, many trucks among them. Drivers coming from the north report an hour-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hour wait. During the change in shifts, when the checkpoint is paralyzed, the queue stretches beyond the downward curve in the road and we can’t see its end, despite the large difference in elevation.Pedestrians arriving from the north: get off the taxicabs that don’t have a permit to cross southwards, or, alternatively, because of the long wait in queue for inspection the taxi drivers prefer to let the passengers off in order to replace them with those coming from the south. They wait down there, by the side of the dusty road, 70 meters north of the booth; they are waiting for a gesture of the military finger or for the command yelled in creative checkpoint-speak that characterizes the occupation army, degraded and degrading, a hybrid of commands and instruction in Arab/English/Hebrew gibberish. . . each word more garbled and faulty than its former:”Tnen! Tnen! Hallo! Hallo! Eyrgaa! Waaoo! Rega! Rega! Stan’e! Stan’e! Wachad Wachad!!!”And then, if the longed for sign is given, they will move up on foot, in the oppressive heat, with their babies and packages, in the midst of dust clouds and car pollution, up to the thorough inspection process and on to the “southern” taxis waiting up the dust road east of the checkpoint.Sometimes, with no apparent reason, a “humane” mood descends upon the inspector, and, with a slight gesture of the finger, he waives the inspection of women loaded with babies and toddlers who already made it to the inspection point. Such incidents do not occur, God forbid, down at the entrance to the queue, after they get off the taxi vans. The wait can last as long as fifteen minutes.15:14 There’s no consistency in the inspection process of vehicles arriving from the north: at times they are not inspected at all, at times only the IDs are, and at times IDs, baggage, and car trunk. . . As usual – we couldn’t figure out the rational. The only plausible explanation is “to confuse the enemy”. ..Sitting in the front seat of a beat-up Subaru are a mother and a father, and around eight children in the back. They passed through with a gesture of the military finger, without inspection. Have we already mentioned that the soldiers are “humane”?When pedestrians are inspected, vehicle inspection is brought to a halt. The same goes for when a truck makes a turn from south to north, as described above. While we were there, four such trucks went through.We tried calling Tami C. in vein. We finally called Elisheva.As the time of our departure approached, it seemed that things were picking up pace a bit. Duration of vehicle inspection from the north during our stay there – between one second and five minutes. This appears acceptable on the surface, but given the large over-crowding due to the closing of passage in Anabta – this does not prevent an hour-and-a-half delay at this checkpoint only.15:33 we leave. We head for Anabta through Beit Lid.16:00 AnabtaWe didn’t run across any manned roadblocks on the way from Ar-Ras to Anabta through Beit Lid.We had the honor and the pleasure of arriving in Anabta at the celebratory moment of launching the “new,” paved checkpoint. It seems as if the checkpoint moved a hundred meters closer to Juncture 557 with the turn north/west to Anabta.During the days in which the road to Anatba was closed, probably, three different exists were breached from the juncture through local initiative, toward the dirt road leading northeast to Ramin. There are only a few meters between each of them. Why three? Because each was immediately blocked and then another one was “paved.”The army has not had time yet to block the last one “paved,” but it is unfit for cars with passengers who wish to remain physically whole.Lieutenant Yuval says that during the days that the checkpoint was closed they allowed Palestinians to drive on Apartheid road 557 and enter Tulkarm at the Jubara checkpoint, as used to be the case before road 557 was turned into an apartheid road. Probably because of difficulties in communication, we couldn’t verify or refute this.One theory we heard is that they could travel through Shufa to Tulkarm. It seems that they really were allowed to travel on road 557 but weren’t told so. . . According to the map there’s no route to Tulkarm from the Shufa direction.We heard different and unintelligible versions from the soldiers at the checkpoint, who referred to “side roads” unknown to us as an alternative.Lieutenant Yuval says that at the moment they are inspecting only those arriving from Tulkarm and those heading to Tulkarm go uninspected. And that’s indeed what we observed. Even though there were around eight soldiers at the checkpoint, they only allowed the traffic to flow in one lane at any given time. Only one soldier inspected the traffic. Debrah suggested that another lane be opened and he said: no, that’s impossible.Yuval: on Sunday they will close down Anabta again in order to install all the dividers. To do the final touches.”Today the side roads will be left open but tomorrow they will be closed.” (Which side roads?)A car coming from the Tulkarm direction is being inspected. A Frenchwoman in the front seat requests to photograph the soldier. He tells her in broken English: “It’s a military zone! It’s my Machsom! You will not photo me if I don’t want you to.”From Tulkarm eastwards – 20 vehicles in 13 minutes. That is, around 2 vehicles in a minute and a half. From east westwards – every few minutes, when 15-20 cars gathered, they let them pass all at once without inspection. Traffic is flowing. . .