Reihan, Shaked, Tue 15.9.09, Morning
7:00 Reihan-Barta'a
Seven minibuses are waiting for workers in the upper parking lot. The main gate is empty of cars. Six pickup trucks with goods are in waiting position in the lower parking lot. The entry gate to the terminal is empty altogether. At 7:22 two young men arrive. They enter the terminal immediately and can be seen in the exit sleeve
at 7:27. At 7: 25, five pickup trucks advance to the inspection post in front of the entrance to the inspection compound; and they enter it after 16 minutes.
7:50 Shaked-Tura (local time 6:50)
Four women with a child and a baby
are waiting near the inspection room.
At 7:55 they enter.
At 7:58 four children aged about eight arrive; they walk toward the concrete hut and stand at the edge. Two soldiers approach them with lists and the children take papers out of their schoolbags. They go through within four minutes. In the meantime, cars enter for inspection and leave within two minutes. A little girl and a teen-age boy are called up to the soldier. The boy takes some paper out of the girl's schoolbag and points to the nearby village, Daher-el-Malek. The children look cared for and festive and the soldiers are courteous and smiling. Male teachers in old cars are inspected quickly and they apparently pick up the women teachers on the other side of the gate. Children who arrive from the direction of the isolated house, walk straight up to the gate leading to the West Bank, but they are called back to be inspected by the soldiers.
At 8:21, ten little children arrive and stand in single file in front of the soldiers. Abbas, the DCO man who speaks Arabic, receives them. Inspection of the papers of these tiny children goes on slowly. Abbas will explain to us afterwards that today they were given numbers and from tomorrow their passage will be as fast as that of the older children. At 8:40, Abbas leaves the soldiers, saying: "Yallah, have a good day!" What a nice CP!