Translation: Bracha B.A. 06:00 – 11:00Sansana 
Today there was rain, drizzling, and then the rain stopped, but it was enough to cause a lot of agricultural workers to return home and to miss the work day.At the crossing there is no line at all, and whoever arrives goes through immediately.  One busload of families going to visit prisoners is already here waiting for the Red Cross person to arrive at 07:00.  They will then cross over.  IN order to prevent crowding at the checkpoint they have begun to open it every day at 04:00 and if the inspection booths operate properly there is no lineup.  S., the manager of the crossing, tells us that they are enlarging the parking lot and that on Friday there was a vegetable market there.  R., the operations manager of the checkpoint, will be responsible for the crossing at Metzudot Yehudah – Beit Yatir that will be transferred to the Border Crossings Authority in another two weeks.  Only merchandise and Palestinian workers who work at Har Amsha and in the settlements of Beit Yatir will cross here.  Sand trucks that cross over “back to back” are working at top speed. Road 60There is heavy fog and children are walking to school on the side of the road.  At the curve beneath Beit Hagai a huge truck with a trailer is stuck at the bend and a jeep with soldiers stops to see what happened.  They are inside the jeep and the Palestinians are trying to move the truck.  All the pillboxes are Dura al Fawar, and the Sheep Junction are manned.  Big Brother above is sleeping.
HebronThe Pharmacy JunctionChildren’s school bags are still being checked – the boys’ school principal tells us that this year the checkpoints are much better.  At least one class of boys has gone to the girls’ school to take boxes of food that went there by UNWRA since the food cannot be brought by car because of the checkpoints and a wagon will also not be permitted to go through.  He also told us that Anat Cohen is no longer driving her car around the school attempting to frighten the children as we saw last week.  Work is being done on the infrastructure on the road leading to the Moslem entrance to the Cave of the Patriarchs.  The loudspeakers from Beit Gutnick is quiet today. בים. 
Curve 160 – Four soldiers from the border patrol are leaning on their jeep-…and everyone continues on their way in this nightmarish city.At the opening to the Olive Crossing there are bright red warning signs telling people not to enter the Palestinian Authority and traffic is moving smoothly.Idna-Tarkomia – The guys in the grocery store tell us that every day of the week soldiers come down from the pillboxes and erect a checkpoint on the side of Idna and create large traffic jams – they block the road for a half hour and then leave.Tarkomia- When we went through there were no longer any people going through and about 12 trucks were waiting in line to enter.  There were no trucks in the upper parking lot, showing that the waiting time was not long.Negohot–        A beautiful new road has opened from the entrance junction to Lachish and Amatzia to the Shoket Junction.  The road is on the western side of the separation barrier that runs here along the green line – except for several instances of Israel stealing land, for example, near the quarry belonging to Omri Sharon, or near the settlement of Negohot.  The fence also is not completely finished and the section from Dahariyya to Ramadin and Lahav.  Since it was reported on the news yesterday that illegal buildings were being demolished in Negohot (everything is illegal and unjust there) and soldiers from the Nachshon Brigade had protested against evacuation of Jewish settlements, we decided to go in and see what was going on.First of all there is a checkpoint, two reservists are guarding and not everyone can enter.  We had to invent a story that we had come to visit a friend and we removed the “Machsom Watch” sign from the transit and hid our tags.  After our ID cards were checked they moved the red bricks and let us enter.  We drove for a while and reached the old Road 358 that connects Beit Awa to Siqa where the Beit Awa checkpoint used to be.  The pillbox is still there and still manned but the yellow gates are open and Palestinians can drive on the road as far as Dahariyya.  There are no signs that mark Area A.  There are a few Palestinian families living on both sides of the road leading to Negohot, which is actually a Palestinian road leading to Dura.  The Supreme Court has recently ruled that the checkpoint has to be removed.  The Supreme Court has made a decision but the people at Negohot think otherwise.

On the right side of the road there is a sign pointing to the Negohot B neighborhood.  They call it Givat Habustan, or “Garden Hill” and it was built in 2002.  There are five buildings, two of which are wooden cabins that look like pretty vacation cabins.  Further on at the top of the hill stands Negohot A, a fairly large settlement.  Behind it is a green gate with a Palestinian village behind it, but that gate is closed!!!  Remember that the Supreme Court ruled that it was to be opened?  The gate is closed and locked, and we see a settler coming from the other side of the gate about to enter the settlement from the direction of the Palestinian village.  HE opens the gate with a key.  On the other side of the gate is the illegal settlement and only a settler has the key.  We photographed what we could and left.  We gave all the information to Hagit from Peace Now and we will see what will happen.  The entire area looks very pastoral…and on the other hand we see the horrible occupation of the settlers.