Jalama, Shaked, Rihan, Wednesday, May 10, 2006, AMObservers: Yocheved G, Netta G (reporting)06:00 – 09:40 Jalame, 06:00 The pedestrian checkpoint is closed and deserted. Purim has gone, the elections have been held, Pesach and Independence Day are in the past, a government has been formed – and the closure remains.Six long and empty trucks are waiting in front of the back-to-back checkpoint. Meanwhile, two giant trucks, loaded with Italian ceramics, arrive. One of the drivers tells us that the drivers of the empty trucks got in line last night and went to sleep. They will appear in time for the opening of the lot at 07:00 approximately. They will transport stone from West Bank quarries to Israel. The ceramic is being transported from the port to the West Bank.06:30 – the soldiers have already entered the pedestrian checkpoint. They are not opening yet. A forewoman from the sewing shop in Jalame, resident of Mukibileh, is waiting. She tells us that four workers in the sewing shop are allowed to cross from Israel to the plant even during closure.A bus is waiting for the families of convicts, to take them to Beersheba Prison. Shaked, 07:20The gates are open. Transit of schoolchildren and farm workers has stopped for a few minutes. The soldiers are waiting for an answer regarding the permits of two farmers from Tura. The two are a man and his 22-year-old son. The father received a permit for Shaked, while by mistake the son was given a permit for Rihan, which is far away from Tura – a village on the east side of the fence, with lands on the west side. The soldiers’ calls to the brigade, and our calls to the District Coordination Office don’t help. The schoolchildren and other permit holders cross. Each child is asked to give his or her number on the list and the soldier asks the child’s name. Rihan, 08:15 We descend the sleeve in the direction of the pedestrian crossing and are asked to stop. Two soldiers are standing on the bridge above the sleeve and attempting to lower a plastic barrier to block the passage. Pedestrian traffic is stopped in both directions.We exit the sleeve and walk down to the Palestinian parking lot. We are quickly ejected from there both because of a suspicious object and because of the commanding general’s order.Meanwhile the vehicle crossing is open. A few cars are passing. The number of pickup trucks transferring agricultural produce is also small today.An employer is seeking to transfer money to a worker who is waiting for him in the Palestinian parking lot. He says that the man is the best tiler he knows. He is not allowed to go down to the lot. He succeeds in transferring the money through a Palestinian driver. Another driver, who wants to deliver cloth to a sewing shop in the West Bank, is not allowed to pass. Transfer of commodities from the seam zone to the West Bank also has to be coordinated in advance.Everything waits more than an hour for the bomb disposal vehicle. When the sapper arrives, the vehicle crossing is also closed. Luckily there are few pickups today. Even three cars of settlers from Mevo Dotan and Hermesh are compelled to wait.Meanwhile, some ten pedestrians are waiting in the sleeve to cross into the West Bank, among them a young father with a particularly well- turned out baby. In the Palestinian parking lot, a few score people are already waiting. The checkpoint soldiers and the bomb disposal crew are trying to get them to move back from the road. When the people don’t move to the desired place, they start “educational” shouts in Hebrew: “we have time, we can wait till four this afternoon, we’ll go away and come back later!”By 09:40, the suspicious object has not yet been detonated. We leave the checkpoint.Later, a phone call to the brigade reveals that, luckily, it was only an innocent bag.