Rihan, Tuesday, December 21,2004, PMObserving and reporting: Mara, Shula14:00 – 15:00The checkpoint operates to the “glory of the State of Israel”: The few who have arrived pass through swiftly. The soldiers are calm and surprisingly relaxed. The CP commander, Sergeant H. (Hirsh), who is no doubt a prized soldier, nice and industrious, uses common sense, from time to time reminding his soldiers how to behave. Even the military police team work like human beings.Almost all Palestinians go through, it is permissible to bring in everything, except for commercial quantities, for which “one needs to travel to Jalama.” The soldiers cite this mantra, but there isn’t a single person who knows where Jalama is, nor does anyone know how to get to Jalama, or how much a tomato will cost for a person from Barta’a if someone from Israel has to travel to Jalama in order to return it to Barta’a.On the way back we entered one of the villages to speak with children who go to the school in Tura, located on the eastern side of the fence. We found out that each morning they go through the Shaked gate. The soldiers come to open the gate at 07:00, which is okay, but at noon, when about 60 pupils return from school at around 12:00-13:00, the army lets them wait about two hours. This is in the heat of the burning noon sun or the cold and rainy weather at this time of year. The students say that soldiers drive by, see them waiting, and yet let them wait for a while longer, before they open the gate.We are asking observers on afternoon shifts who drive to Rihan to go to Shaked gate at noon to see what is happening there before we make a complaint.