The agricultural CP 623 is near the separation fence which runs next to four Arab Israeli villages which are united under one local council called Zemer (the name of a Wadi called Zemer both in Arabic and in Hebrew). The fence is not close to the Green Line, so that there is a zone here with olive plantations which belong to the surrounding Palestinian villages Zeita, Atil and Deir al-Ghusun.These villages belong to the Tulkarm district and its DCO is the Tulkarm DCO. There are two agricultural checkpoints in the area, Atil and Deir al-Ghusun. The gates are opened three times a day.

I was told by a friend from Zemer that many Palestinians pass at the Deir al-Ghusun CP and that the approach to the CP is easier, so we chose to go to this CP. According to the DCO the gate was supposed to be opened at07:00.

07:00 The Deir al-Ghusun CP

We arrived at the CP on a well paved sandstone road, while on the sides of the roads there were olive plantations amongst which we saw very old buildings, partly destroyed, but very beautiful. The CP was still closed as the soldiers shut the Atil CP at 07:00. We saw very many people and tractors waiting at the faraway gate.

07:15 A military vehicle arrived on the system road and the soldiers opened the gate wide and left it like that…

07:20 The first people come out.

Each time 5 people enter by the faraway gate, the military policemen quickly check their authorizations on a kind of podium (see attached photo) and they leave by the open gate. There is also a closed building intended for checking on the CP site, but today it wasn’t in use. The passage was very quick, we didn’t see anybody sent back although we were told that sometimes the soldiers point out to them that their clothes are too clean, but I didn’t get the impression that they were sent back, as for instance at the Anin CP. About 250 people, most of them young men passed! Also about 20 tractors some of which had carts that served for the transportation of the men, but also tractors without carts that served for transportation (see attached photo). We saw only two women who passed, one of which had a bucket in her hand and we were told that part of the people hadn’t finished picking the olives from the trees. One of the young men passed a donkey and tied it outside the gate and another came later took it and rode down the road. One of the men asked for a phone to enable him to make a call concerning the authorisations. He was given one.

We talk with one of the lads who tells us that the soldiers are not always “good” and that yesterday for instance they held them at the CP till 18:00 (the CP is supposed to be closed at 16:45).

07:55 Everybody has passed, the soldiers have shut the gates (at the DCO I was told that the gate is open till 07:45).

It seemed to us that we saw somebody else arriving after the soldiers had locked the gate but the soldiers had gone on their way.

We too leave and drive to the village of Marja (one of the villages pertaining to Zemer) to the house of our friend A. to drink coffee and to partake of the wonderful oranges that grow in his garden.