Jalama, Reihan, Shaked, Sun 22.11.09, Morning
5:50 A'anin CP
Inspection of the documents is conducted on the other side of the middle gate inside the CP. People come out of the CP with long waits between them. One of the workers reports that at this time about twenty people are waiting to go through. Somebody shows us his permit, which will become invalid after November 30. He claims that all the permits become invalid on that date and there is a rumor that after that people will not be given agricultural permits at all. Is that true? The olive grove near the CP has been ploughed under recently; apparently with the garbage in it, which still can be seen sticking out from many places.
6:10 Reihan-Barta'a CP
"Today is a good day", says a worker on his way to the seamline zone. From the gate at the lower entrance we hear the voice of a woman who is organizing things with exaggerated assertiveness, even though there is no crowding at the gate. In the window, a woman is standing and doing her work with surprising efficiency. At 6:22 an additional window is opened for eight minutes. Worried and frightened workers report to us that there is a new practice of not renewing permits of passage to the seamline zone for respectable veteran workers, for all kinds of fabricated reasons. There are many rumors about informing. A representative of the Barta'a local council intends to speak to the DCO about this matter.
The soldiers arrive and the gates
open at 7:00 on the dot. About twenty-five people are waiting near the turnstile; five minutes later the herds go through. The schoolbags of the pupils are inspected near the soldiers' post; the cars go through quickly while the workers go through slowly. Within five minutes six people came out going in the direction of the seamline zone. Those going through to the West Bank go through more quickly. It is important to note that by contrast with the rest of the CPs, where there is lively traffic mostly in one direction at certain times - here, at Tura, the traffic is heavy in both directions and it seems that the inspection room serves those going in both directions at the same time. In our opinion, the time has come to provide separate services for those coming from the West Bank and those going there, at least during the rush hours, or, at least, as was suggested in the past, to open the CP earlier so that workers can go through before the school children before and after work.
At 7:55, at the entrance to the Jalameh CP, there is a very long queue of cars waiting for the gate to the West Bank to open. We have to go around the queue on the right on a dirt road in order to pick up little Aya in the parking lot, which, since the opening of the gates for Israeli vehicles, looks quite deserted.