Rihan

Rihan, Tuesday, November 30, 2004, AMObservers: Meriam L., Ricki Y., Tammi S. (reporting)0 9:30 -11:00Very little traffic of vehicles and people. The checkpoint commander, Y., says that if it were up to him, he would have allowed everybody to go through. There is a significant sense of frustration and burnout syndrome, which effects the soldiers, the Palestinians and us, too. An elderly man arrived on this cold, windy morning. He was on his way to visit his sister who lives in the West Bank. He holds an Israeli ID card and wasn't aware of the closure. He was forced to return the way he came.The soldiers felt uncomfortable, and they too couldn't see the logic of banning Arab Israelis from entering the West Bank at times of closure. The elderly man called out with bitterness: "Is this your democracy? How come Israeli Jews can go into the West Bank?"Two construction workers came to the CP after they were denied passage in Taibe. As a matter of fact, they did have permits, but as we could see, permits are no insurance for passage. There was something about the date at the top of the permit that looked suspicious in the eyes of the soldiers. In Rihan they were indulgently given permission to go through, What will they do tomorrow? Yesterday, they told us, they were forced to wait two hours in the passage between Niezlat-Eissa and Baka, on their way home. What is left from their day's work?According to Fuad, the olive picking season is over and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Since the day before yesterday, the permits given for agricultural worker are invalid. As we drove by, we saw some olive pickers, but that doesn't interest Fuad, He knows that "There is not a single olive on the trees," as he told us over the phone. Since a few Palestinians with an "agriculture work permit" were caught entering Um al-Fahem and working there, all will be punished. Those workers lost their permits, which were confiscated, and according to Fuad, they will not receive such permits next year.The Barta'a market is loaded with fresh vegetables, because they allow transfer of the produce in a more liberal fashion. For the first time, we saw the transfer of 15 boxes of produce, where as a rule, they allow only 10 small boxes and 5 big ones. If this were the result of a new, clear policy, we and the Palestinians would have been happy. But we know very well that it is all arbitrary. The bottom line is: today they let it in, so be it, Yallah...