Shaked, Rihan, Sunday, March 19, 2006, AMObservers: Leah R, Sandra R, Chana H (reporting)07:00 – 10:00 Shaked, 07:10The gate is still closed. After a quarter of an hour, and after we phone the District Coordination Oiffce, where they claim that the patrol is “stuck,” a command car arrives with soldiers. They open the gate and the schoolchildren pass through joyfully and without any special check.Two adults cross from the West Bank to the seam zone. The old man with the donkey is sent back to the West Bank after a long debate, together with two other adults. A woman from Dahar al-Malak with a valid pass for Rihan asks to cross at Shaked and is refused. Again we witness the absurdity: Residents who live 200 meters from the checkpoint and want to get to Tura (200 meters away on the other side) have to travel six kilometers each way (40 shekels for a taxi) for simple daily arrangements. When they arrange their permits, they have to choose only one checkpoint, and they opt for Rihan because it is open all day.Would it be so complicated to let them cross at one of two checkpoints at their discretion, according to the opening hours?The gate closed at 08:00. Rihan , 08:10 We are told that the checkpoint opened today at 05:30. People are passing in both directions and the rate is 20 people every 15 minutes.The Palestinian parking lot is crowded. Coordination for transfer of goods has been going on since 06:00, but the merchants complain that the first truck is still being examined. It seems to us that the check is particularly meticulous, without a magnometer, but with the eggplants and courgettes being passed one by one from one box to another. The checkpoint commander contends that today they are trying a new method, and that’s why there is a delay, but it will only be with the first vehicle.Only one military policeman is working on the inspection, and during the time that he is busy checking the first pickup truck with its vegetables, no other vehicles can pass the checkpoint into the seam zone. A line of ten vehicles has gathered. Toward 09:00 (apparently after breakfast), more military police appear, the check of the first tender is speeded up and, from time to time, a magnometer is used.Meanwhile, the other vehicles are also crossing – a two-minute check, on average, per vehicle. At 09:25, finally, the first pickup truck is released.From here on, the vehicle check is okay. Two additional vehicles with agricultural produce pass the inspection. Each examination lasts 20 minutes and most of the boxes are checked with the magnometer. We hope that this is not only because we are here.At 09:30 a Border Police car arrives with three workers who crossed at Kafr Kara with permits, and four illegals. The reason: Purim closure is still on and it is forbidden to be in Israel. They are recorded and sent home.In the Palestinian parking lot we meet a farmer with a valid permit that was issued in November 2005. He was not allowed to pass because he had not renewed the permit after December 18, 2005.The soldiers on the site tried to prevent us transferring used clothes to the Palestinian parking lot, but when we told them that the commander of Battalion 50 had approved this, they backed off.