Sheikh SaedWednesday, 06.06.2007, AM (06:30-08:30)Observers: Hana B., Neta A., Tamar A (reporter)Sheikh Saed: 07:00–8:10 – When we arrived people welcome us by complainin about the narrow passage in the checkpoint, where people can stumble easily. But worse is the humiliation, exceptionally humiliation of women. “If a pregnent woman falls here, and a soldier will look at her, it is not accepted”.As a few shifts have already remarked, the entrance at the chekpoint was narrowed since the shooting, to a minimum. Police barricades create two different paths, one for people entering Sheikh Saed, the other for people leaving the place. The entrance path is just wide enough for the passage of a grown up persom. The exit path is so narrow that only children can go through it without problem. A grown up person, even a thin one, has to go sideways. We heard different explanation for this: “In order to prevent them from running” sais one of the BP men in the place. “You deserve it” (as a punishment for the shooting) an inhabitant cites the commander of the checkpoint. As a result of the difficulty in going through it is more difficult to empty the garbage into the garbage container on the Jerusalem side of the checkpoint, and instead they started to pour it down the slope.The traffic is thin, and people have to go one by one. We cross the checkpoint into Sheikh Saed. Four school girls and about ten school boys 14-15 years of age are not allowed to go through. The soldiers claim that they need a document from the school where the children study in addition to the birth certificate. A phone call to the DCO representative reveals that this is a personal initiative of the commander in the place, and everyone goes through, except of two school children. The birth certificate of one of them got wet, and it is mostly unreadable, except of the date of birth that shows that the boy will be sixteen only in September. The other one is already sixteen and he need a permit that he does not have. A youngster with a box of cheese, about five kg. in weight goes through after he opened the box. At 07:45 the checkpoint is almost empty. In addition to the two schoolboys all those who were not allowed to go through left the place.A few minutes later, when more people who want to go through, arrive, and we join them, one of the soldiers gets into an argument with the first person in line, and in the meanwhile all the others have to wait. “It is true that those women (us) want to help you, but is it not humiliating for you that they take your photographs and that you need their help? … It is a border here. Go to Turky, it will be the same”. They write down name and ID number of everyone who goes through, including ours.This is what we were told about the shooting: One of the shooters was a retarded person, the other one had a family that fell apart. Meaning they were the weakest people in the neighborhood. Who knows if they were not chosen because of this, just to create the provocation?