Reihan, Shaked, Sun 28.8.11, Morning
6:00 Reihan-Barta'a CP
Three taxis and two Transit vans are waiting in the parking lot on the side of the seamline zone. M. says that everything is ok in the terminal. We hear yelling and barking from the vehicle inspection pavilion. In front of us, on the road, a truck with two big carts is being inspected by means of a dog and a mirror. When we reach the turnstiles, we find out that a number of the seamstresses, apparently two of them, are not allowed to go through. The head of the workshop is called out, and tries to convince the soldier to allow them go through – but he does not succeed. Afterwards, he tells us that their permits became invalid on the 26 of August and they already have new permits which, for some reason, will be valid from the 30 of August. Somebody forced a vacation on them, almost certainly without pay.
We walk down to the parking lot on the side of the West Bank. A guard delays us; he does not allow us to go through, and a woman who is stationed at the post uses a loudspeaker to order him not to talk to us. In the end the person in charge of the CP allows us to go ahead. The parking lot is almost empty. A pickup truck with goods is waiting on the road and another three are in the parking lot. A few people come to the terminal. Hannah is waiting for someone who needs forms signed for getting a permit and I travel with our driver, Huri, to the Shaked/Tura CP.
7:10 Shaked-Tura CP
The gate at the front is open while the inside gate and the gate at the back are being opened only now. There is a new piece of equipment to beautify the CP: there is a barbed wire fence the length of the road, almost from the entry gate and over the concrete hut beyond which there is a path for pedestrians. Soon, when the school children will go back to their studies in Tura – they will be walking on a narrower path; they will have to be careful not to tear their clothes or to get hurt.
A woman from Daher el Malek - who intends to go through to the West Bank with her children – tells us that her husband, who grows tobacco on the other side of the fence, asked to transport a few sacks of tobacco to the seamline zone – and was punished by the soldiers at the CP who took away his documents. Now he cannot accompany his family who are going to visit relatives on the West Bank.
A teacher who wishes to transport two boxes full of books for the school at Umm-el Reihan arrives from the other side. He is not allowed to do this without having arranged for this in advance. At 7:40 a herd of goats goes through and after that all is quiet in the CP.