Rihan, Thursday, July 28, 2005, PMObservers: Yael, Nava (reporting)14:10 – 16:30Vehicle inspection post – There are 12 cars awaiting inspection; pace of passage is reasonable.Pedestrian inspection post – Eight women sit in the shed, among them a 36-year-old woman holding an infant. She is married to an Israeli citizen and resides in Um al-Fahem. On Monday she went into the occupied territories for a visit with relatives who came from Saudi Arabia.She had no problem going into the West Bank without a passage permit; her marriage certificate was sufficient. But now, no one at the checkpoint speaks Arabic, she speaks no Hebrew, and there is no one to understand her predicament. All the soldiers understand is that she has no passage permit, and there is no way they’ll let her in without it.We spoke with the CP commander, and with the help of several interpreters we were able to explain her problem. Finally she was permitted to go home.Others who were denied passage were a mother with her two daughters, one 12 years old and the other a bit older. They wanted to go from the occupied territories into Barta’a. Their passage permit is unclear as to their original place of residence. (The husband is from Barta’a and she is from Arabe). Because of the closure, they were denied passage, without any effort to look into the problem a little deeper. The mother claims that they had been waiting there for almost three hours. An assertive talk with Basem at the District Coordination Office (DCO) apparently helped and the three were allowed to go home.A bus arrived at the site with children from Barta’a, who had attended a summer camp near Nablus. All kids aboard were taken off the bus and had to walk through the pedestrian inspection post, this after waiting in the sun for an hour.In general, no workers were seen at the checkpoint. The few who did arrive had work permits which allow them to enter Israel despite the closure.Inside the detention pen were nine detainees who eventually were released.The atmosphere at the checkpoint is somewhat nervous.