Reihan, Shaked, Tue 7.6.11, Morning
0600 Reihan-Barta'a checkpoint
Passage is as usual without delays. At the sleeve we meet the Seamstresses and the Sha"hak workers.
On the road and at the car park, a few pickup trucks loaded with agriculture produce are waiting. According to the drivers, they've been waiting for hours, they worry that the vegetables might go bad in this heat.
One of the Seamstresses, a young dumb/deaf girl comes back from the terminal in tears, she was turned to the DCO because her finger prints did not match the one in the Biometric machine,. We suggest she should go back for another inspection while trying to reach Sharon the checkpoint manager, but he is not available. We've asked the person in charge to look into this matter and in a few minutes the young woman is called back. A relative waits for her and they drive to the DCO. At this point nobody is aware that the DCO is closed due to the Jewish Holyday of Shavuot. Why can't such problems be resolved at the checkpoint? rather than sending people back and forth causing them to loose time and money.
Only God and the Brigade commander have answers.
In Tul Karem the DCO is located right at the checkpoint.
07:10 Shaked-Tura checkpoint
By the end of the month school will be over all around the West Bank. Now is the exams season, pupils arrive without their school bags all they carry is a rolled booklet and they go over and memorizing the material. Most of the young pupils do not come at all. The driver Y. comes to pick up his one year old grand-daughter! We were surprised, he is 42 years old and looks like a teen-ager and already is a proud and happy grand father.
Passage inside the cabin is very slow. How not surprising. Again they write down names of those coming and going. Y. of the DCO is on site to help.
08:10- About 15 people wait on the Eastern side to cross over to the Seam Line zone.
We left.
While at one of the the checkpoints we met E., an olive grove owner located a few hundred meters from his home, on the other side of the checkpoint. For a year and a half now he does not receive a permit to get to his land. He left home a few days ago in the direction of Jerusalem and back to the Seam Line zone - total of 300 hundred Kilometers . He had spent his nights in various corners. This is how he handles his life, always under the threat of being caught and arrested.