Reihan, Shaked, Sun 25.9.11, Morning
Translation: Bracha B.A.
06:00 – Reihan-Barta'a Checkpoint
Workers are waiting for their rides and trucks are waiting to be checked. The Palestinian parking lot is filing up. We drove to the Mevo Dotan Checkpoint. It is unmanned but the lights are on. We walked around in the village of Emricha and gave people bags of second-hand clothing. We returned to Reihan-Barta'a where workers were entering the terminal and coming out the other side within five minutes to meet their rides to work in the seamline zone.
07:00 – Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
The front gate is open and the rear gate is just opening. The school principal is waiting his turn to be checked. An earlier regulation has been re-introduced, and now drivers must leave their cars behind the concrete barrier and walk to the inspection booth.
The owner of an olive grove in the seamline zone has worked for years in Israel and has also served as the head of his local regional council. He has difficulty walking and he complains that he has not received a permit to drive through the checkpoint despite the fact that his brother did receive such a permit. When we tried to clarify this at the Liaison and Coordination Administration they reported that he should approach the Palestinian contact. He attempted to approach them numerous times and has not succeeded.
Y. arrives in his car filled with happy, well-dressed schoolchildren. At our request, an officer at the checkpoint allowed a handicapped person sitting next to the driver, on his way to the West Bank, to be checked while sitting in the car rather than walk. We thanked him for his consideration. "We do take people's needs into consideration," he replied. We told him that not everyone does... He continued to talk to us across the fence, from a distance, and suggested that we come and talk to soldiers, but the discussion was interrupted, so we told him to visit the website and contact Machsom Watch.
At 08:00 we heard marching music coming over the loudspeaker like the music we heard in Emricha. This time it was coming from the school in Tura.
On our way from the checkpoint we met a worker who was returning home because he had received a cut on his thigh from the barbed wire that was stretched from the gate of the checkpoint to make the road narrower.