Shaked and Rihan checkpoints, Tuesday 20.6.06 a.m.Observing and reporting Tami Shai and Ayala.Shaked 07:30 There is a matriculation examination in History today and high school students cross over to school in the west bank.Families with children come in from the west bank into the seam-line zone.A man and a woman are not allowed through for a reason unclear to us.The checkpoints closes at precisely 08:00.Rihan 08:10There are many people passing through the terminal. it takes about 3-4 minutes from the the time they enter until they exit.People also go through in groups. mostly workers and a few families with children.08:37 – At the vehicles checkpoint: There are three areas of activities, at the first, they start unloading a truck loaded with vegetables. at the second post the vehicle undergoes a thorough inspection and in the third we watch a bloodhound sniffing Palestinian vehicle in search for explosive materials. The more we watch the process it is more clear to us that this is not a regular checking but rather exercising the dog , the trainer, a female soldier ,again and again points out to a certain place in the car and offers a ‘prize’ to the dog as he succeeds in is mission. The vehicle belongs to a person from Barta’a who sits aside for half an hour while the dog is trained. We turn to one of the soldiers to inquire about that and are answered rudely by that soldier who tells us that it wasn’t our business. He is being assisted by an older volunteers who yells at us to go away. We asked to speak with the checkpoint commander but he refuses to see us. As soon as we began marking telephone calls, the inspection has ended and the driver had to put back together the wheel’s cover before he was able to proceed.When we finally got hold of the checkpoint commander he was was bewildered trying to avoid our questions.09:07 – The truck is reloaded with its agriculture produce. merchandise wasn’t really inspected, the soldiers stood about 6 meters away from the truck watching the porter unloading and reloading the boxes.09:15 – At the Palestinian car park we hear from unemployed drivers how difficult their financial condition is, and they can hardly provide for their families.09:30 – We left watching the dog and his trainer knowing that they’ll continue practicing on people and vehicles trying to cross the checkpoint.Translation: Y.Bassis-Student