Aanin, Shaked, Rihan, Monday, 30.7.07 amObservers: Anna NS, Noah K (new), Netta G (reporting)06:05 – 09:50Translation: L. Williams06:05 Aanin Checkpoint The gates are open, the first people are passing, and with them four donkeys. We’re told that 40 people are waiting. A woman says that her husband is very ill, and only one adult son has an agricultural permit. The permit was confiscated because the son did not return on the day that he went out. The woman went straight back to Aanin to accompany her husband to hospital.A man complains that, not only do they have to return the same day, but they also must return by the same gate through which they went out. Return through Rihan-Bartaa does not count. The man told us that one day he got a phone call that his wife was about to give birth. He hastened to return through Rihan because Aanin ‘of course’ was closed at that hour, and they made no problems. Nice.07:05 – a father of 14 children from Aanin, known to us from the checkpoint, asks to talk to us. The soldiers refuse to let him enter the area between the gates to talk, but one of them, a well mannered soldier, escorts him to us. The man says that they have not renewed his permit since April, and have told him that he must go before a hearings committee at the DCO.According to the soldier, 89 people have passed, not including children who are not on the soldiers’ lists but must return as they crossed accompanied by a parent. This morning they let through everyone who arrived with the required permit while the gates were open.07:10 – the gates are closed.07:20 Shaked-Tura CheckpointTwo yellow taxis cross to the West Bank.A car with an Israeli number plate crosses into the Seam Zone. Its owners have a blue non-resident ID card and a special transit pass.Light traffic of pedestrians. The checks are, as they used to be, outside. The inspection hut is closed.A man from Dahar el Malch in the Seam Zone crosses with a donkey and cart to his daughter who is resident in Tura, beyond the fence. He has a plastic fan, brought from home, which he wants to give to the daughter. In Tura it’s also hot during these days. The soldiers won’t let him take the fan through: “Forbidden to transfer electric appliances!” A phone call to the DCO does not help, because this is a “web of life” gate – not a transfer point for goods and commodities. A fan is not included in the Palestinian “web of life.” The man rides on to his daughter while an acquaintance takes the fan back to Dahar el Malch.A blacklisted man asks to speak with Anna. The soldiers don’t let them meet between the gates. The conversation begins in shouts across the fence and continues on the phone.08:20 Rihan-Bartaa CheckpointDrivers are waiting for passengers next to the parking lot on the Seam Zone side.Only one of the three toilets installed there is functioning.We descend the sleeve to the entrance of the terminal. At this hour only one checking post for IDs is working.Most of the people crossing to the Seam Zone are working in East Bartaa. According to people coming out, 10-20 people are waiting in the inspection rooms.Mostly families cross to the West Bank. Transit from the Seam Zone to the West Bank is fast.08:50 – we go down to the Palestinian parking lot. Not much traffic, but constant, at this hour.09:25 – a man comes out of the terminal carrying a friend. They cannot both pass the turnstile to the parking lot, and the injured man hopped on one leg to pass through. He was in a work accident: a full carton of ceramic tiles fell on his foot. He arrived at the checkpoint in a car, but the soldiers forced him to cross the checkpoint with the help of his friend, who had left work in order to help. When they are through, they take a taxi to Jenin hospital.There is a wedding today in East Bartaa. Our friends, the coffee boy and E., the driver, won two day passes for Bartaa.09:50 – we leave. At the vehicle checkpoint, they inspect our baggage compartment. At this opportunity we complain in the name of the drivers about the fact that their toilets have been taken away. (Sharon, the operations manager on the spot, says that they will install in the Palestinian parking lot toilets with running water, as in the lot on the Seam Zone side. We will follow up…