JERUSALEM PERIMETER

Hazaytim (Olives) - northwest end of Al Ezariya, at foot
of At-Tur. Intended only for pedestrians holding Jerusalem ID cards and other
appropriate permits. Site has shed and turnstiles that pass people into
sophisticated terminal. Checkpoint is distant from centre of life of suburbs
east of Wall, and access is difficult.

Pishpash - no more than a narrow gap between
concrete plates of the Separation Wall. Used by schoolchildren and nearby residents
with Jerusalem ID cards, whose names appear on soldiers'
lists.

Sheikh Saed - district is part of West Sawahira (that also includes Jebel Mukaber),
separated from each other when Wall will be completed. Sheikh Saed has only one
entry/exit blocked by rocks since 2002, so passage is only for pedestrians.

Translation: L. Williams  

15:00 Aanin Checkpoint
The gate is already open and only 15 people and children, with two donkeys and two tractors, are waiting to return from the Seam Zone to the village. The soldiers are holding all the IDs and permits collected in the morning when people went to work, and are now returning them. A young man with permits returns together with his 13 year old brother. He contends that the brother was allowed to pass with him in the morning, without listing and ID, and now the soldiers won`t permit the child to return unless he produces to them his mother`s ID and permit (the father died a few years ago). But the mother does not have such a permit. She after all does not work in agriculture and the sons work with their uncle. They also do not allow the youngster to phone from the area of the checkpoint.
Up to the hour of closing, the soldiers repeatedly phoned somewhere, and were adamant about the mother`s documents. Suddenly, at 15:35, they relented and let the youngster and his brother return home. Another youngster who passed in the morning, and his ID remained in his possession, arouses suspicion and is detained for clarification.

A young man, with ID but no transit permit, had gone out a few days ago, and is now not permitted to pass immediately and he is eventually let through after debate up to the moment of closing the gate. None of the three soldiers speaks Arabic, and it was lucky that Sima was there and could serve as interpreter. 

15:45 Shaked (Tura)
The checkpoint gates are open, with no passers by. Seven soldiers sit, bored, in the makeshift office.  

15:55 Rihan (Bartaa)
In the Palestinian parking lot, we met a resident of Anin who told us that, this morning, a hundred men came to the checkpoint, wanting to pass, but only 25 passed by 08:00 because the soldiers worked slowly. That perhaps explains how few were returning. According to him, on Monday when there was a shift of ours, it was okay. He also said that they confiscated the transit passes of four Aanin residents and sent them to the DCO to get new permits, since they hadn`t returned from the Seam Zone (or Israel) on the day they went out.

Three pick up trucks with agricultural produce are being checked in the closed compound. A few vehicles are passing under regular procedure from the West Bank to the Seam Zone.
 
16:00: workers are beginning to return to the West Bank. Seems that there is a hitch in the terminal. Only one station is working, there is crowding and slow transit.
 
16:15: the soldiers transfer to another station and the pressure lets up. Time taken to transit the terminal is 15 minutes.. 

 Translation: Devorah K.  

0600-0655 Rihan CP  
In the upper parking lot we meet the lucky ones who are hurrying to work. Minibus-taxis are waiting for those who are still delayed. Most of those we asked answered that this morning there were no problems and the passage was speedy. Among these there are some who add -- 'but yesterday it was hard'. 
Among the seamstresses there are some who say that the passage in the terminal this morning was without any problems, and they were not taken into the inspection rooms at the side. One of them, however, said angrily that she was delayed for an hour.
In the lower parking lot there are still no cars. Neither have the trucks appeared in a queue. But the trays of eggs are already on the asphalt path waiting to go through in the sun.
The people whom we usually meet with at this CP report that the new CP at Mevo Dotan is full of delays and is very upsetting. The people who let through there every day can be delayed all of a sudden. It seems that the soldiers do not work according to clear rules.
 
0700-0725 Shaked CP
A tractor and about 10 people are waiting to go through on the Tura (territories] side.
On the side of the seamline zone two people are standing. The soldiers let people through alternating the sides. For at least two weeks they have not been taking people into the checking room and the soldiers "clerks" meet the people under the sunshade.

A taxi from here to Barta'a costs ten Shekels. 

0730 - 0815 Reihan CP
The traffic is now thicker. A commerical vehicle is waiting. The eggs are still waiting. Private cars operating like taxis enter and leave. People in groups come down from the bridge opposte Zebda to the CP on their way to Barta'a or to Israel.

Until the hour of 0815, hundreds of people did not go through the CP, especially from the West Bank to the seamline zone, because they have no permits of passage -- and the reasons are all the kinds of superfluous ones that there always are.