Rihan, Shaked, Jalama, Wednesday, November 23, 2005, AMObservers: Anna N., Netta G. (reporting)Rihan 06:10 – 07:10When we arrived, the checkpoint was still closed and the soldiers were beginning to arrive from the nearby base. The gates for pedestrians and vehicles opened at 06:30. Next to the pedestrian gate some 50 men and women were waiting. The concrete partitions that defined the entrance had been moved, and now served as a wall between the Palestinian parking lot and the system (security) road. The soldiers took positions in the blockhouse close to the checking installation and called the Palestinians one by one. By this means the crossing was particularly slow.At 07:00 the soldiers moved to their usual table, called the Palestinians in pairs and the pace became reasonable.The checkpoint commander took the trouble to explain to us that the soldiers had entered the blockhouse, not because of the cold, as we must certainly have thought (we really did), but because those were the security orders. The commander had seen for himself that working this way was not efficient.All the holders of suitable permits for Rihan had passed, except for the workers of Shahak Industrial Area. Israelis do not cross into the West Bank.Shaked 07:20 – 08:00The transit of schoolchildren and a teacher from the seam zone to the Palestinian side of the fence had proceeded properly. Even the old man and his donkey had gone through. Farm workers with valid permits for Shaked were not allowed to pass. The soldiers suggested that they travel to Rihan and cross there.A telephone clarification with the District Coordination Office produced the fact that they would not be allowed to cross at Rihan. According to DCO Salem, the olive harvest was over, and the closing of Shaked and Barta’a agricultural gates was coordinated with the Palestinian liaison office and the village heads.(But a moshavnik soldier told us that a farmer always has work to do on his land.)Rihan 08:10 – 09:15Scores of people crowded around the pedestrian gate. People are fed up with standing in the cold wind, and some of them are going through even though they have not been called by the soldiers. The commander stops the traffic until everyone has returned to the Palestinian side of the gate. When tempers have calmed down, transit is renewed. Military policemen are checking people through efficiently. In the detainee compound, there are six people. All are released before we leave. At the vehicle gate, relatively little traffic.Jalame 10:00 – 10:15A lot of military vehicles parked in the lot.At the end of the pedestrian “sleeve” there are four soldiers and a policeman, but no Palestinians. The soldiers tell us that merchants and humanitarian cases are going through. No workers, All in all, only a few score people come through during a day. The soldiers say that every morning there are five buses with the families of prisoners. They are transferred in the parking lot, back-to-back.At the hour we were there was only one truck in the back-to-back entry lot.