JUBARA and IRTAH, Thursday 18 March 2004 PMObservers: Hanna A., Yael A., Rachel H. (reporting) color=red>Summary: Within the limitations of this terrible routine, it appears that passage through checkpoints is indeed quicker, as has been recorded in other reports this week.Jubara checkpoint:We arrived at 14:15 to find that the few pedestrians using the checkpoint were going through without problems. The vehicles were mainly giant trucks working on the “security” fence and the cars of settlers, all of which naturally went through without delays. One detainee at the side of the checkpoint told us that he’s 26 and from Jenin. He had gone to Israel to look for work a week ago going through a checkpoint near Jerusalem, had not found work, and now wanted to go home. He hadn’t slept all night and hadn’t eaten since yesterday. He had been detained for an hour. Our intervention received the usual response: his documents were being checked; when the checking was finished , we’ll release him. He was released at 15:30: we don’t know if our pressure helped.An elderly Palestinian with a German passport and a tourist visa was refused permission to go through the checkpoint to his brother in Sir village . The officer from the District Coordinating Office (DCO), whom we asked to intervene, talked to him at length but explained that “those are orders and there’s nothing to be done.” There is at the moment no entry into the territories for holders of tourist visas. K. confirmed by telephone that there was nothing to be done, and suggested that the man try to use the Barta’a checkpoint (is it possible there?). We matched up the tourist to a man from Qalansua who took him back to Tira.Checkpoint 700 Irtah: We arrived at 15:45, to see a mass of workers coming home at the end of their working day. The young soldiers from the Nachshon battalion were full of smiles and polite. They checked documents quickly and things went smoothly. Inside the checkpoint there were several trucks off-loading goods from one lorry straight onto the back of another, a system designed to ensure that neither lorry crosses right through the checkpoint.One of the workers told us that he’s from Nazlat ‘Isa village near Bak’a el Garbiye; he works about five minutes drive from his village, but for the past three weeks, since the “security” fence has gone up, it takes him four hours and NIS 70 daily to get to work. Was there anything we could do to help, he asked.We left at 16:15