Jalama Wednesday morning, 13 October 2004 Observers: Ruthie M. , Snait A. , Dalit Y. (reporting) 6:25 The new concrete checkpoint is secure and appears somewhat threatening. There are many armor-clad vehicles and a relatively heavy military traffic. Palestinians are nowhere to be seen in the entire area.Our questions as to what is happening at the CP are answered laconically by the Military Police personnel, who seems uptight. We are not allowed to come closer to the shed, where Palestinians are waiting for passage. The stand-by platoon, in full gear, run on the roof tops of the terminal.Soldiers move about with their weapons ready for action. The entire area looks like a war zone. It is unclear to us, what exactly is going on. An MP updates us that today is the opening day of the new terminal and therefore they are running some maneuvers. There is a great deal ofpressure.After more than two weeks of closure [passage prohibited between Israel and the Territories], the Palestinians apparently do not know that at this time it is permissible to cross.We stand outside the defined area of the CP. 6:45 An Arab woman laborer, appears from the Israeli side and wishes to cross towards Jalama through the new “sleeve”, but she is being detained. She explains to us that she is from Moukeibla (an Arab village within Israel) and works at the sewing workshop in Jalama. She doesn’t understand why they don’t let her go through today, (no one, of course, bothers to explain to her…) according to her : “Every day we cross here, even on days of closure, because we are permitted [as laborers in an approved workplace]” . She has an Israeli ID card but this doesn’t entitle her to receive the minimal explanations given to us.A taxi arrives at the designated parking lot, later a pick-up truck parks there as well. On the other side (where, as stated in the above, we are not allowed in ) we see a few people gathering. The taxi driver, an Arab from Nazareth – who knows my mother – , explains to us that he came to pick up a family from Jenin whose daughter needs to get to the Nazareth hospital this morning for a surgical procedure. He speaks to them on the cellular phone and they say that they are waiting for the checkpoint to open.We try to find out when this is going to happen and we get a not too friendly reply,: ” When the maneuvers will be over, around 7:00″. 7:05 The CP opens. The seamstress from Moukeibla goes through, quickly. The family en route to Nazareth, hurries into the “sleeve”. Snait checks the time, They come out on the Israeli side within 10 minutes. They are followed by the few laborers who came to the CP.7:45 There are no more people waiting in the shed and we drive to the back-to-back area [for transferring goods being transported across the CP without the vehicles crossing it]. It turns out that it is closed and except for one (Israeli) truck, there is no activity in that area. This is the first operational day of the new checkpoint and on this first day it is unclear whether it’ll be more efficient than the old one, and whether the passage will be at all quicker.What is obvious at this time is that it looks unfriendly and intimidating. Also, we are not allowed to come near it, to talk to people or to see anything