Jalama, Shaked, Rihan, Sunday, October 9, 2005, AMObservers: Anna N.-S., Raya Z., Neta G. (reporting)Jalama 06.00 – 06.20About 20 laborers are standing in front of the vehicle passage. In their hands, they have permits to work in Israel for the olive-picking season, including permits for sleeping in the country. They and their Israeli employers, one a kibbutznik and the other an Arab, understood that they had an entrance permit for the olive-picking. Apparently they had confused work permits for olive-picking with agricultural permits. Our telephoning the DCO and the brigade headquarters did not help. The closure is still on.Shaked Gate, 07.05 – 07.40When we arrived, the gate was closed for a few minutes. The soldiers say that there is an incident at the fence. When they reopened the gate, they let the farmers from Tura through first. After that the pupils were called to go through in groups of five. Only the big backpacks of the older children were inspected. A few of the younger pupils, who were almost too late (the school day in Tura begins at 7.45), were allowed to pass without their names being checked on the list. The soldiers told us that some of the younger children went through before we arrived and before they closed the gate.Rihan, 07.50 – 09.30Pedestrians: The parking lot on the Palestinian side, which was closed for a long time, is now open. People can come to the pedestrian passageway in comfort and drive from there to the West Bank.People go through to the gate by the improvised path of the concrete buildings. Four women, one from Shan with a baby in her arms, do not want to crowd in with the men and they “slip through” between the concrete buildings and the gate. A man with a child of three, who is not his son, is not allowed to take the child with him. The man has an appropriate permit, but he has no document for the child. The child’s father cannot come to the CP at this time of day. By the time we tried to find out what could be done, they had left the CP.Vehicle passageway: There is a tense atmosphere. It turns out that the orders connected with the transfer of goods change from day to day. Yesterday, they allowed people to transfer 15 boxes, and today there is a limit of five. Cases of vegetables are inspected thoroughly; bags of vegetables are spilled into boxes and the tone of speech is nervous.A Border Police car arrives. Six Palestinian illegal residents get out and are made to sit down on a traffic island near the vehicle passage. Their documents are examined and they are sent on their way.The commander of the District Coordination Office (DCO), Fares, and Bassam arrive at the CP. We conversed with them, raising the problems that came up this morning. In regard to the man with the child, they said that there are cases of “kidnapping” children in families where the parents are separated. They said that it is possible to arrange things by telephone – the father could call the DCO and confirm that he allows his son’s passage. Usually small children go through with a parent or with an appropriate document. Fares said that there is an intention to make the transfer of goods easier, but conditions for inspecting goods at the CP are not yet suitable. They tried to make it possible to transfer goods in relatively large quantities and the attempt failed; that is why there were misunderstandings today.Fares said that he is going to meet the company commander of the military police. We asked them to talk to her about the rude tone of voice used by some of her soldiers and he told us that that is one of the topics on the agenda.