'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Jalama, Tura-Shaked

 

We brought a baby girl to the checkpoint from Rambam Hospital in Haifa, together with her father and grandmother.  At this hour there is practically no one going to the West Bank and Palestinians cannot enter Israel.

 

Four tractors loaded with various odds and ends, and five pedestrians, are waiting in front of the locked gate.  The soldiers are a bit late.   They arrive and open the checkpoint.  Another tractor and two pedestrians arrive.  

 

By 15:15 everyone has crossed.  The soldiers have to wait until 15:30 when the checkpoint is due to close, but we do not. 

 

Traffic is light through the checkpoint at this hour.  People cross quickly.  A family crosses with a baby in a stroller and a man crosses riding a donkey.  

 

A bus from the Central Company for Development of Samaria is parked at the bus terminal.  The sign on the side of the bus reads: "Violence is not my way" and in smaller letters: "City with no violence in Samaria."  As if the city's very existence in occupied territory of Samaria is not a blatant example of violence. 

 

Hundreds of workers are returning from work.  Those who work in Israel return without delay. Those who work in the seamline zone go to the inspection booths. Two are operating and occasionally a line forms, which disappears quickly.  Several well-dressed women and their children cross to the West Bank.   Others cross to the seamline zone.  A ten-year-old girl crosses to the seamline zone with two toddlers, unaccompanied by an adult.   She looks like she is accustomed to doing this and to being a little mother. 

 

16:20 – We left the checkpoint, which was "operating smoothly."  Workers continue to arrive and cross the checkpoint on their way home.