Summary

The media continue to confuse checkpoints with the Occupation; continue to concentrate on “improvements,” including the end to the choking of Palestinian commerce and the fact that Palestinian Israelis are allowed to drive their own cars into the West Bank to shop. What’s not emphasized is the local Palestinian population’s continuingly cruel existence and the overall preponderance of the culture of security with its absence of mechanisms for monitoring and critiquing the security establishment: other than a few organizations and, of course, MachsomWatch.

14:40 Deir Sharaf

The soldiers on duty are sitting it out, vehicles passing them freely in both directions, including us.

14:45 Shave Shomron

Active duty on behalf of the soldiers who’ve created a line as they check Palestinian vehicles going towards the Jenin direction. The soldiers are worried as to who we are, and where we’re going, and three approach us. Vehicles are not checked in the opposite direction.

16:00 Anabta

No line, lots of waiting taxis as well as figs on the side of the roadway.

Jubara

No figs at the figs gateway, but a group of five soldiers, not sitting, but with little to do surround our car at an unusually empty access point to the OPT. On hearing who we are, one asks, ironically, “So, you don’t want checkpoints?” as the “blue” policeman, standing at the checking booth, binoculars in hand, surveying the distance, remarks to him, “If you want to talk to them, talk to them at home.”