Reihan, Shaked, Tue 8.2.11, Morning

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Observers: 
Leah R., Anna N. S. (reporting)
Feb-8-2011
|
Morning

Translated by Dvora K.

06:10  New Barta'a CP

('Reihan' according to the Occupier - an illegal CP named after an illegal settlement)

 It is a cold morning. Drivers talk to us from inside the car with one hand holding a cigarette and in the other a cup of hot coffee. The CP opened at 05:00. The seamstresses have gone through. So have the workers from Shahak. No change or novelty was observed in the procedures of the morning. According to the estimate of the drivers who get here at five a.m. and continue sleeping at the CP when they have no work; all together about 200 men and women have gone through.

We continue and go east to a CP in the direction of Emricha. On the way, we meet the village children on their way to school in Ya'abed. The children are well-taken care of, and their hair is carefully combed.This is definitely out of the ordinary against the background of the misery and neglect of the village.

07:05 Tura CP

('Shaked' according to the Occupier - an illegal CP named after an illegal settlement)

The soldiers are already at the CP and busy opening it. Immediately afterwards, about 30 people crowd the turnstile at the entrance to the inspection room on their way to work in the seamline zone.On the other side, in the direction of the West Bank, there are a few teachers and a few vehicles.

07:15  The pupils from the seamline zone arrive. They include children of all ages -- from kindergarten to the upper grades of primary school. An 'older' brother holds the hand of a younger brother or sister. They walk into the CP in an orderly queue. They wait for permision from the soldier (a wave of his hand) and go on to the path at the side that is especially for pedestrians. A soldier stops them there and passes them on in threes or fives -- to the next soldier. The little ones, in perfect order, open their schoolbags even before they get to him. and he looks into them. Sometimes he asks the child something (we can't hear what it is; we can only see his body language.) After each group goes through (in the mud), another group of children is given permission to go through, too. The procedure is fascinating. Palestinian children are taught to obey the Occupier from the earliest possible age. That is how the children of Palestine meet each new day. At the checkposts, behaving quietly is taken for granted; as if it is their fate from birth, a fate into which they have been drawn. They do not know any other kind of reality.

08:00  We leave.