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

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Observers: 
Ruthie T., Photographer; Yocheved G., reporting
Oct-18-2015
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Afternoon

 

Photos from Anin Checkpoint:  Farmers return by tractor and by mule from the olive harvest with sacks of olives. Bottom right:  Talking with Yocheved about their tribulations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived early in order to have enough time at Anin as well.  It is 15:00.  Traffic at Tura-Shaked Checkpoint is light.  We spoke with those who passed through and who were returning home.  The driver who transports people in his taxi from checkpoint to checkpoint, a pleasant, smiling man, tells us in a joking mood how they occasionally abuse him at the checkpoint.  Recently, they checked his big, black car and were suspicious of the upholstery in the back seat.  They groped and pounded and decided that there was something suspicious inside the seat and simply tore (!) the upholstery and exposed the back section of the automobile.  Not only did theynot find anything, they didn’t think there was a need to compensate the driver for the damage.  And so, with the back seat torn, he drives back and forth . . .who will pay for it?

 

15:30  Ba’arta-Reihan Checkpoint 

Dozens of young people, in groups and individually, hurry to return home.  Those who bypass the signing-in counter are those who work in Israel and are exempt from signing in.  The others gather in a line and sign in quickly.

 

16:10 Anin Checkpoint

The checkpoint is open.  A considerable number of people who have finished harvesting olives are waiting, tired from a day’s work.  Three tractors, two donkey foals wait patiently.

Again we encounter the problem of limited permits, a phenomenon that repeats itself every year during the olive harvest:  A woman goes out by herself to harvest olives in the family orchard because they don’t give a work permit to her husband; a very old man whose son did not receive a permit, only for the olive harvest.  Particularly during this season the Liaison and Coordination Administration remembers that all kinds of relatives can help with the harvest, but they come up with endless excuses to deny them passage at the checkpoint.  Therefore, every year we see men and women, some of them very old, who work to the last ounce of their strength.  The soldiers who worked today at this checkpoint tried to help and dragged sacks of olives with their own hands, but emphasized that they could not do more, following instructions from above.