'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 5.3.12, Morning

Translation: Bracha B.A.
06:10 – A'anin Agricultural Checkpointו
Wahel, a representative from the Liaison and Coordination Administration is busy issuing permits and gives us his telephone number 050-6234156.  About 20 people are waiting at the middle checkpoint.  The checkpoint is operating and only those with permits are allowed to cross.  During our shift several people were sent back even though they had valid permits.  According to Wahel, the reason is that they failed to return to A'anin at the end of the day. The 80-year-old man, a permanent guest at the checkpoint with his donkey, forgot his permit and his son has gone to get it.  We are pleased to see that his son brings it and that he is allowed through. The checkpoint closes at 06:45.  We estimate that about 40 people crossed through.  

07:00 – Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
The computer is not working and it takes longer for people to cross through.  Other than that things are proceeding as usual.  Most of the people crossing are farmers going to their fields in the seamline zone.  School children and teachers are crossing to the West Bank. 

07:45 – New Reihan Barta'a Checkpoint
There are a lot of workers crossing through in the terminal.  We followed things from a distance and saw that there were no unusual delays.

There are several tenders loaded with food standing by the side of the road waiting to be checked.  One of the drivers told us that he began working when he was eight years old because there was financial difficulty in his family, and he had only gone to school for two years. He worked in agriculture in Baka el Rarbia.  The same was true of his brother.  He is now 22 and the poverty has continued in his new family.  He has difficulty finding work and is happy to earn NIS 20 ($5.00) a day as a driver. He described horrible poverty and difficulty without any light at the end of the tunnel. His parents are refugees from Haifa in 1948 and arrived in Yaabed with nothing and have been living in desperate poverty ever since.  

By 08:15 about 40 people had crossed to the seamline zone and only about 10 returned to the West Bank.  Most of those were workers who were returning home after working at night.