Rihan, Thursday, April 27, 2006, AMObservers and reporters: Revital S, Hedva H09:30 – 11:15A few agitated Palestinian youngsters stop us on the way down to the checkpoint, and say that the woman soldier at the vehicle checkpoint had spoken to them very coarsely. According to them she had called them with “ho!” which is appropriate to horses or dogs – not human beings. When one of them commented to her about it, she punished him by making him wait an extra 10minutes at the end of the line. Is it legal to punish at a checkpoint? The checkpoint commander whom we approached about this, responded: “They should say thank you that we let them pass here. We speak to them more nicely than they deserve.”From a conversation with a Palestinian in the parking lot, we found that today there are five checkpoints between Jenin and Rihan, and it takes five hours to get here from Jenin. This was already happening a month ago. A resident of Yabed told us that at the checkpoint next to Yabed, they are not letting cars continue on the main road to Rihan, but only by roundabout roads or on foot.In the Palestinian parking lot there were many vehicles, but few pedestrians.At the vehicle checkpoint, two pickups were being checked olive by olive – very meticulously. It was only when we left, after an hour and a half, that they were released.As we were leaving, we were approached by a man who introduced himself as a lawyer from Arara, who told us that he was not allowed to meet today, even for a minute, with his client. The soldiers sent him to another checkpoint, and only after a prolonged debate did he succeed in finally meeting for a moment.