Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Sun 19.5.13, Afternoon
Translator: Charles K.
A shift without incidents; the occupation routine goes like clockwork.
Tura-Shaked 15:30-16:30
People enter and leave. The soldiers are bored and so are we.
One man blacklisted by the police is given Chaya A.’s phone number. A laborer from Shahak arrives through the fields on foot.
Barta’a-Reihan 16:35-17:40
People who work in Barta’a arrive in groups from the West Bank and cross quickly, apparently without inspection. We can see through the padded revolving gate that there’s in fact one woman in the booth; she seems to control the crossing in both directions. People crossing pull out IDs as they approach the revolving gate and go through quickly. Two detainees
sat on a bench when we arrived, but they quickly entered. Some people stopped us as we walked up the fenced corridor. One pulled out a list of ID numbers he’d prepared and reported a problem: When the permits of four workers were renewed they incorrectly noted they were allowed to cross at Ariel instead of Shaked. During the past two weeks everyone changed their permits to ones that say Shaked, but when they’re presented to the computer it shuts down, “as if attacked by a virus.” It takes a long time to fix the problem and people are late for work. Their foreman tried to intervene but the problem hasn’t been fixed and they continue to be late for work. Ruthie took their information and will try to speak to the DCO about it.