Rihan, Tuesday, April 25, 2006, AMObservers: Tami S (reporting) and guest06:30 – 08:15Pedestrian checkpoint, 06:30- 07:40A thin trickle of Palestinians. According to the soldiers on the spot, the seamstresses have already crossed, at 05:30.Personal comment: the battalion on the spot is quite new – two weeks. A religious soldier turned to us openly and with sincere curiosity wanted to learn what motivates us to come to the checkpoints, and expressed his appreciation that we do something for our political beliefs, even though they are contrary to his, rather than just sitting idly at home. It was difficult for me to explain to him the path of MachsomWatch and, in general, the most basic belief that it is not moral to be a conquering people on the backs of another nation. That language is completely beyond his comprehension. In our short conversation, I understood that there is a rift so deep in our view of the facts and of the realities, and it seems to me that concepts like morality and the right to freedom don’t exist for him at all. Conversely, concepts like security, order and reward and punishment are very clear to him.Vehicle checkpoint, 07:40 – 08:15All the while we were there, two commercial vehicles loaded with vegetables stood at the checkpoint for examination. The drivers offloaded box by box, opened the plastic covers of each box and poured the contents into another empty box. Eggplants and onions rolled on the ground, and throughout, a volunteer from the seam line stood with his weapon pointed. At the same time, a soldier stood with a woman volunteer who said she was the mother of twins. She had come for two weeks reserve duty. The woman volunteer’s carbine was also pointed at drivers getting out of their vehicles to offload cargo. When one of the drivers has a problem taking down a spare wheel, the soldier calls a Palestinian who is unloading vegetable boxes to help the driver with his spare tire. At the end of the inspection of the vegetable boxes, a broom awaits the driver who, out of habit, takes it and sweeps away the remnants of vegetables on the ground.