'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked, Ya'bed-Dotan

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Observers: 
Claire A., Neta G. (Reporting)
Jul-30-2015
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Afternoon

 

15:10  Anin Checkpoint

“There are more important things” than the time and the suffering of the Palestinians.

 

There were traffic jams on the way and we were a bit late, but despite that, the checkpoint was still locked (it was supposed to be opened at 15:00).  A dozen people and seven tractors wait (see the photo).  It is very hot.  We telephone the command center.  “We are clarifying (the situation).”  Another phone call.  “We are still trying to clarify.”  I tell the soldier that it is very hot, that people are waiting.  The soldier knows but “there are more important things.”

 

One of those waiting defines himself, in good Hebrew, as a “frustrated farmer”.  Another says that we help.  How?  “You come even though it is so hot, and we see that we matters to you.”  Nice to hear, but we too are frustrated.  In the meantime, Claire, who works on the electrical connection for Dahar-al- Melech, asks how Anin got connected.  Apparently there is a master plan which has been prepared in the 1970’s under the military rule at that time.

 

15:45  The command center reports that soldiers are on the way.  After a few minutes, they arrive and open the checkpoint.  One of the soldiers says in embarrassment that they didn’t know they were supposed to arrive at that checkpoint at 15:00 and that when they set out on the way they had a flat tire, had to wait for another vehicle and were late.

 

16:00  Everyone has gone through.

 

16:45  Tura-Shaked Checkpoint

There is almost no traffic, as usual at this hour.

 

We enter Dahar-al-Melech, a small village in the area of the seam line, close to the Tura Checkpoint.  Claire tries to help them with the electrical connection.  We sit on the porch of the mukhtar and two Hebrew-speakers participate.  Evidently, Samir visited them, the new chief of the command center, and told them that soon there will be electricity.  Claire will follow up.  They speak about a sick woman who needs a respirator and how her husband sent her to family relatives in Umm-Reihan, because it is impossible to rely on the generator. They say that there are about 15 sick people who need electricity for their medical devices.

 

17:00  Baart’a-Reihan Checkpoint

On the way to Ya’bed-Dotan

 

On the Israeli side in the area of the seam line, transportation vehicles bring workers. The Palestinian side is still filled with parked cars in the parking lot, and  the sides of the road are an additional, improvised parking lot.  We continue.  The gate on the road that leads from Amricha to Ya’bed is locked, as always.

 

17:15  Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint

The checkpoint is manned.  A settler from Mavo Dotan approaches us, full of love.  Two soldiers also come to find out who we are and tell us we should turn to them if we need something.  There is a lot of traffic at this hour.  The soldiers pass cars through each time in one direction, therefore creating a line in the other direction.  Only individual cars are told to stop and the line dissipates quickly.

 

17:40  We return.  At Baart’a-Reihan Checkpoint they check us and the trunk of our car.