Shaked, Rihan, Wed. 18/01/2006 PM Observing and Reporting: Brurya and Lilach13.30-14.45 13.40 Shaked The gate is closed and locked. There are no military vehicles, no people waiting; the children are on winter vacation until 28/01/06. Rihan Very few people. We are not allowed to enter the terminal. A young Palestinian turns to us and tells us that the General Security Service forbids him to pass, and he does not know why. He has a green ID card (Palestine) and lives in East Barta’a (Palestine). His wife is diabetic, she is an Israeli citizen who lives in West Barta’a with their three children. He claims that he has a clean past and he never received any explanation of why he is forbidden to go through. We talked to Fuad, the Salem DCO officer who was there, and it was agreed that tomorrow morning the Palestinian will come to the DCO and his situation will be reviewed again by the GSS – with a favorable attitude.A convoy of 14 vehicles with agricultural goods have been waiting since the morning. The passage began at 14.00, with very careful inspection. When we attempted to understand why this happens again and again, we received the same unsatisfactory responses: “The confirmation arrives only in the afternoon, and only then can we let them through.” Why in the afternoon? “That’s the way it is, they present their requests the evening before and the confirmation gets to the CP on in the afternoon.” We suggested that when the confirmation is given, there should be an additional inspection point for these vehicles, so that the passage will be accomplished more quickly. The answer was that there is not enough personnel.It started raining hard, and we left. The line of commercial vehicles did not get any shorter while we were there.[translation: Devorah K.]