'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Thu 22.10.09, Morning
Many people have already gone through; we are told that 120 people came to the CP in the morning. The eight Bedouin children from the village at the foot of the CP, on the side of the seamline zone, come on donkeys and wait for someone to give them a ride to school in Umm a-Reihan. The children are polished and combed, in stark contrast to the filthy environment of the CP. 06:40 They all went through. During the olive-picking season, the CP opens at 07:00. The soldiers remain in place but the DCO representative leaves and as he passes he tells us that 1600 permits were distributed for the olive-picking season. We tell him that people are complaining that they received permits only for two months. According to him, they can appeal to the DCO in Salem, without any mediation by the Palestinian Coordinating Office, and ask for the permit to be extended for two or three weeks.
A farmer, whose land is especially well-cultivated, tells us that he had difficulties when he wanted to transport stones from A'anin for a fence around his land. The man told us proudly that at the edge of his olive grove he planted Lebanese prickly pears without thorns. He says that on one of the days before he came to the CP with his old father and smoked there. The soldiers let his father go through and detained him for about an hour as punishment for having smoked.
07:05 Shaked-Tura CP
The gates
are open and a few dozen people, a few cars and a herd of goats are waiting to go through from the West Bank to the seamline zone. Fropm the seamline zone to the West Bank mostly schoolchildren who study in Tura go through. The pupils are identified on the list that the military policewoman has in her hand.
07:25 Only a few people go through to the West Bank. A relatively large number of people, are still waiting at the entrance to the inspection pavilion on their way to the seamline zone.
07:50 Reihan-Barta'a CP
There is only a little pedestrian traffic; workers and traders from East Barta'a go through in groups. Seven loaded pickup trucks are waiting in the parking lot, four cars are waiting near the vehicle CP on the way to the semline zone, four other cars are waiting near the upper vehicle CP on their way to the West Bank. The first women passengers, with children and toddlers, get out of the car for document inspection.
One man tells us that he is not allowed to go through because two of his sons are in prison. One of them was sentenced to life imprisonment and the second to many years in prison. For a reason that we do not know, the man is not allowed to visit them. Their mother is ill and cannot travel to see them. The man tells us that before his sons were imprisoned he worked in Israel for many years.