Eyal Crossing, 'Anabta, Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim), Sun 13.9.09, Afternoon

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Observers: 
Noa P., Tal H. (reporting)
Sep-13-2009
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Afternoon

Ras Atiya 14:45
Two soldiers manning the gate in the fence that surrounds this village. A bit desolate, not a soul in sight, practically. Very scant traffic at this time. A truck arrives, waits for a signal from the soldier to approach him. The driver greets us, we greet him.
This sufficed for the soldier to gesticulate angrily at the driver, and after sending him to be checked in the booth, he approaches us and explains that we can stand here and mustn’t create a disturbance. How are we creating a disturbance? By speaking to the driver and holding him up. We didn’t speak to him. We said hi and he answered hi.

-Yes, but he looked at you…

On our way near Kedumim colony we see a brush fire by the road.

Further on the way, the entrance to Azun village is blocked by a wide earth barrier.
Army jeep parked on the side.

Jit Junction 15:20
Further on in the directionof Tapuach Junction close by a civilian police car and military vehicle, but no traffic pressure.
We do not stop there as we are headed for Dir Sharaf, the ‘Haviot’ Checkpoint, where soldiers are relaxing, seated and not bothering in-coming and out-going traffic.

Anabta Checkpoint 15:40
Vehicles enter and exit undisturbed, we did not stay long.

Yirtach Crossing 16:00
A crowd of workers on their home outside the outer turnstile. Inside, only one checking counter active. The turnstile locks every few minutes. Tremendous pressure in the air. After long minutes of tense waiting, hundreds of workers, the inner doors open suddenly and another two checking counters are activated. One of the workers tells us in unbroken Hebrew: “That’s how it is day in, day out. They screw us (sorry!) every morning, every afternoon.”

Eyal Crossing 16:50
Here too after some workers get through quickly, we witness an accumulating crowd outside the outer turnstile. Then we hear the following pearl of humor on the p.a. system inside: “All the checkers, out of the water!”
And we proceed home, ashamed.

Holiday greetings.