8.15 – 6.00

Barta’a Checkpoint, 06:00

As usual many workers were walking up the sleeve to the upper parking lot where vehicles were waiting for them.  They reported that the terminal was not crowded and that crossing was going smoothly.  Some managed to stop to buy a cup of coffee and to pray.

A resident of Aanin who has farmland in the seamline zone that is listed in his name complained that only his sons who work on his land are permitted to cross at A’anin, while he is not allowed to.  The claim is that he works in Israel and is therefore only permitted to cross at Reihan – Barta’a.  This is contradictory to the current ruling by which residents of A’anin are permitted to cross at either checkpoint.

A’anin Checkpoint, 06:30

The two soldiers who are guarding the fence at the checkpoint 24/7 were wearing large black masks to prevent them from being identified (?) approached us to see who we were.  The military police arrived at 06:45 from Tibeh Romena Checkpoint and immediately opened the gate at the checkpoint for the many people who were waiting behind it.  People entered one by one and showed their permits.    7 tractors and 150-200 people crossed.    The olive harvest has begun but the checkpoint is not yet open every day as is usually done during the harvest.    It is still open only two days a week.  The first olives being harvested are for eating, and the olives for oil will be harvested next month.

One of the tractor drivers told us that he can no longer enter his olive grove with his tractor because of the trench that was dug to prevent thieves from driving stolen cars to the West Bank.  We told him to go to the District Coordination and Liaison Office in Salem.  By 07:15 everyone had crossed and the checkpoint closed.

07:30 – Tura Checkpoint

The checkpoint was open and we met workers who were crossing to the seamline zone.  One of them told us about three teachers from Dahar el Malik who had crossed at the checkpoint.  One of them was not listed when she crossed in the morning and was detained for an hour and a half when she returned.    School pupils and students crossed to the West Bank to school. 

A woman from Um Reihan who works in the Ministry of Health in Jenin crossed to the West Bank in a car with three small children who were about 8 years’ old who go to school in Tura.  She had to return to the seamline zone because one of the children did not have a copy of his father’s I.D.   or birth certificate.  She left him at the checkpoint alone and frightened after calling the child’s family because she had to get to work on time.  The child’s family who was in Barta’a could not come, and sent a teacher from the school to attempt to get the child across, but he was also not successful.  The woman soldier insisted on seeing the father’s documents.   After the father sent photos of the documents from his phone the child was finally permitted to cross.  Evidently the copies had been carried by his older brother who had crossed earlier, and the child arrived at school late.   Younger children had previously been exempted from being checked and we wondered if this situation had changed for the worse.

Workers and cars continued to cross in both directions.  One of the people told us that the school in Um Reihan was next to the road there was no sidewalk or pedestrian crossing and in the morning the fast-moving traffic endangers the children.