We decided to depart from our habit this time and, at the same time, to satisfy an old curiosity. We wandered around in the settlement of Shaked, which we are accustomed to observe from the western part of the Tura checkpoint.  The gate was open and the man serving there didn’t ask us any questions.  We “wasted” about an hour there, as well as the gas coming and going.  We saw the “housing culture” in the extensions in every direction, including a new extension in the direction of Daher al-Malah.  We saw the amazing landscapes spreading eastward, southward, and westward.  We helped a woman find her 2 boxer dogs which we had seen earlier.  We tried to get to a place called “the ethnic village ‘moments of mercy'” which had jumped out at us on the map, at the edge of the industrial part Shachak (Shaked-Chinanit-Katzir), but we couldn’t find it. A short visit to Daher al-Malah, from the eastern side (the part that almost reaches Shaked).  Afterward, a brief visit at the Tura checkpoint, where we are already tired of talking about the filth and the absurd silence which surrounds the place.  Afterward, we traveled to the checkpoint at Barta’a. We parked on the Palestinian side, where there is now plenty of room.  We met people returning at the evening hour from their work in Israel to the west bank on a long, long trail.  No one came to us with requests, no one complained, no one was angry.  They only welcomed us with “Salamat!”.  In the end, we gave some “Hanukkah gelt” to the little coffee sellers who accompanied us with smiles all the way to the car.

We never stop being amazed at this piece of land, one of the most beautiful in the whole country, and never stop being pained at the wounds which the horrendous checkpoints inflict, the brutal separation fence and the megalomaniac settlements.