'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, יום ב' 5.11.07, בוקר

Share:
Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Email
Observers: 
Netta G, Anna NS (reporting)
Nov-5-2007
|
Morning
Rihan, Aanin, Shaked

05:30 Reihan (Bartaa) Checkpoint

The checkpoint is still closed. In the lower parking lot there are a number of pick up trucks loaded with agricultural produce. Palestinian workers are cleaning the checkpoint. Security men are walking to their shifts. One of them opens for us the checkpoint at the parking lot with a hearty "Good morning." A soldier stands with weapon aimed in the position facing the lower parking lot.

More than 100 people are waiting for the terminal to open. A few score seamstresses are standing separately, to pass separately. Walid, followed by Said, arrives at the coffee station. Walid guides Said in the making of tea for the waiting vehicles: "No, you give that one in a glass!" He pulls one out and cleans it. Afterwards he goes around collecting into a nylon bag the plastic cups and the other debris from yesterday. Within a few minutes the waiting crowd go in by groups. They emerge from the turnstiles at a run straight into the terminal, where they can expect a long wait, so they rush to get good places in line.
06:00 – the traffic inwards is blocked – perhaps there is no room for everyone inside.
06:15 the first people come out up the sleeveinfo-icon to the upper parking lot. B. works in a Shahak plant: "Since Ramadan (the checking rooms) – it is worse."

At the vehicle checkpoint there are four cars with doors wide open as a dog goes through them as though they are its property. The owners driven to the side, sit waiting.

06:20 Aanin Checkpoint

The olive picking season has ended after 20 days – instead of three months. there are people who still haven’t received a permit to pass through to their work. Somebody complains that not all the olives have been picked. The people did not conceive that the season would be so short, and they did not go out every day. Now part of the crop will go to waste, and there are agricultural tasks not yet done – as they trumpet angrily.
People exiting Aanin are listed by the soldiers, one after the other, there are no delays. The checkpoint closes at 07:00 as the last of the workers go through. According to a helpful soldier, more than 110 people crossed this morning. Yes, they would wait for latecomers, he says, and would not close the gatesinfo-icon in their faces.

07:10 Shaked (Tura) Checkpoint

Perhaps 20 people waiting on the West Bank side till the last of the schoolchildren and cars will pass from the other side. Routine behaviour as the soldiers check satchels. The older ones pass through the huit in both directions. One comes out, another goes in. The old man with his donkey arrives from the West Bank. The donkey is checked thoroughly: the cloth sacks on its back are turned over, and then the animal remains next to the soldiers, waiting while its owner is checked in the hut.
07:30 – Reihan (Bartaa) Checkpoint
 Routine traffic. The main people detained in the rooms are youngsters.
In the parking lot, scores of egg boxes are on the ground. A field cot and dirty mattress are tied to a post.
The taxi drivers are very angry about the new-old restrictions at Dotan Crossing. Since Thursday it is not clear who may, or may not, cross. The instructions are contradictory. After pleas, B. from the DCO arrived at the checkpoint to see the distress from close up. At the same opportunity the names of drivers were listed as permitted temporarily, and whoever was not listed on that occasion was added by phone. "Today was okay," they say bitterly, but what of tomorrow?
H., our disabled acquaintance, is not to be seen at the terminal. Seems he passes in a vehicle, as was agreed.
09:15 – we leave.