Rihan, Shaked, Monday, 9.1.06 AM Observers: Dvora, Nava 07:50 Shaked Checkpoint – open but no children because of the festival. 08:00 Rihan Checkpoint – six illegals in the compound waiting to cross from the seam zone to the West Bank. Within ten minutes a group of ten more illegals arrives. Some of them sit on the ground. A few are released just as large groups of illegals begin to arrive, and in the next half an hour more than 50 people are filling the compound and its surroundings.We don’t ask but it seems that there is heavy traffic of illegals going home for Eid al-Adha (Festival of the Sacrifice).The men sitting down wait quietly, but the woman officer understands that the usual three hour detention won’t work because they continue to arrive. She comes out and explains to them (in Hebrew) that “you all entered the Land of Israel illegally through Jerusalem (here she gets tangled in the geography and politics of the place), and now you want to return to the Land of Israel through Rihan. Consequently, I’m recording all of you on the computer right now, and next time you come to the checkpoint, I call the police and put you in prison.Since most of the people did not understand a single word, translations began and the definition of “Land of Israel” both here and there was not understood. The concept of going into the Land of Israel then returning to the Land of Israel amused them. They continued to sit and wait quietly. What will you do?” we asked, and they answered that to live is the most important, and they will go on exactly as before.Another wave of illegals arrives, and the woman officer made her own calculations about the three hour detention routine – and let them all go.10:00 we left.