Jalameh, Shaked, Rihan, Wednesday, February 22, 2006, AMObservers: Anna N S, Netta G (reporting) Jalameh, 06:10 – 07:00Men and women workers arriving for the vehicles waiting in the Israeli parking lot. Processing is fast; it takes place in the net sleeve alongside the locked terminal building. The men raise their shirts and take off their shoes after passing the magnometer. The women are exempted from this.Two agricultural workers from Tubas, employed near Beit She’an, pass at Jalameh because the Bazak checkpoint in the Jordan Valley is closed to Palestinians. The two don’t complain, saying that the journey from Tubas to Jalameh takes half an hour and there are no checkpoints on the way. According to them, Jalameh opens late – at 06:00. Lieutenant M tells us that, at 04:30, there is a briefing for the soldiers, and the checkpoint opens at 05:00. He says that some 200 people crossed, and later in the day only individuals.Lieutenant M, after clarification, does not permit us to cross to the waiting shed on the Palestinian side. We raise the problem of friction between men and women before the entrance to the checkpoint. A religious soldier who is accompanying the officer says that this is a problem for Jews as well – not only Muslims. M says he will raise the subject in a conversation with his commanders. In his opinion, the absence of huts in the work area of the back-to-back lot is a more serious problem.In front of the entrance to the back-to-back, on the Israeli side, eight trucks are waiting.Shaked, 07:45 – 08:00The schoolchildren have already passed through. Two women students arrive and immediately pass to the vehicle for Jenin waiting beyond the gate.The soldiers tell us that 60 pupils and other permit holders went through this gate this morning.Rihan, 08:10 – 09:50We want to park close to the Palestinian lot in order to transfer parcels of used clothes for a Kafin resident who is not allowed to pass to the seam zone. The matter seems most complicated for the sergeant, commander of the checkpoint. He, and we, begin a series of phone calls to the brigade and the District Coordination Office (DCO) to get approval for the transfer of clothes. After an hour and a quarter of clarifications and help from K, the DCO representative at the checkpoint, we are permitted to park alongside the Palestinian parking lot and to hand over the packages. The checkpoint commander asks that in future we coordinate in advance with the DCO.Little pedestrian traffic at this hour. The workers and the seamstresses have already gone through. The soldier in the dugout tells us that yesterday there was particularly heavy traffic, and a breakdown in the x-ray installation at the terminal, which caused unusual pressure at Rihan.At the vehicle checkpoint there is little traffic. Seven loaded tenders waiting in the Palestinian parking lot for transfer. The permits have already been received and the tenders are starting to pass, after the produce is offloaded and checked before the vehicle checkpoint.