Rihan, Shaked, Wednesday, April 26, 2006, AMObservers: Ilana A, Anna N-S (reporting) Rihan, 06:20 Up to about 08:00 some 25 people crossed from the West Bank in the direction of the seam zone, among them industrial workers at Shahak. We were told that the seamstresses had also passed. The checkpoint opened at 05:30 and transit was fast, according to the people encountered in the sleeve.The transit of Shahak workers was according to individual permits rather than by lists. A District Coordination Office representative was not present while be were there. Shaked, 07:00 The checkpoints are closed and the soldiers are not there.Some 70 schoolchildren are waiting, the older ones quite excited: the 11th graders have matriculation exams in geography, and all – boys and girls – have formed small groups and are refreshing their knowledge from a book.Until the gate opened, we chatted with the schoolchildren. A Tarzan figure, with long hair, chain smoking, offers us a cigarette (“I get through two packs a day”), asks where we are from. I answer “from Haifa” and he says Haifa isn’t Israel, nor are Tel Aviv, Ramle or Jaffa – all are Palestine. To confirm this, he asks his colleagues, all of whom, wonder of wonders, confirm. He asks me whether in my opinion, Shaked is Israel and I say “no” but that there is a border that has been temporarily cancelled. I explain to him that there are in Israel people who think that it is all Israel. So what will be? he persists. Quietly, very quietly, we concluded that it would be better to have a frontier and two states.Only at 07:30 were the checkpoints opened; according to the soldiers this was because they were not relieved on time. They open the first gate and the little ones move forward before the second gate is opened. The soldiers drive them back, and the children retreat for a few seconds until the soldiers turn their backs, then charge forward again, and so it goes.The lists in the soldiers’ hands have 129 schoolchildren and students, and 29 teachers. Rihan, 08:10 Six or seven cars and the same number of pickup trucks loaded with produce are passing through with routine slowness. A UN car with a doctor, nurse and medical equipment waits a while. A woman soldier collects the magnetic cards, but doesn’t know what to do with them. Another soldier explains to her that these are transit permits of the UN groups and there is no need for further examination. The cards are valid. They ponder for a moment whether to inspect the contents of the vehicle, then decide to let it through. The shortest wait we have seen so far – about 10 minutes.At 09:00 we leave.