Rihan

Rihan, Saturday, January 8, 2005, AMObservers: Sarit A., Yonat Y., Rachel H. (reporting)08:40 - 11:30A cold, sunny day. The checkpoint is vacant. There are no detainees, and traffic streams along. In the morning, there is no inspection of those going into the West Bank; later, they will start inspecting.Officer A. clarifies to us that we can talk to him, and to him only. He allows us to stand very close to the inspection post and near the soldiers. The soldiers do not respond to our "Good morning."Today they allow passage of merchandise (in every quantity). Inspection is not as strict as in the past. Vehicles carrying transparent ballot boxes pass through with no restrictions. A bus carrying Physicians for Human Rights drives through without inspection.A resident of Barta'a (as stated in his ID card) is not allowed to go through the checkpoint, because his permit is for gate 12. (He owns 100 dunams of olive trees near the village of Kapeen.) Gate 12 is closed, because the picking season has ended.Officer A. claims that he looked into that person's situation, and that the Shabak (Israeli general security services) has a good reason for denying his passage.We checked the matter with the Salem District Coordination Office (DCO). It turns out that the farmer is listed as a resident of Tul-Karem/Kapeen. The clerk suggests that we should continue our dealings with him through the Tul-Karem DCO, which, in turn, sends us back to Salem. We stop the clarification process when we learn that the man is "detained by the committee" (which means that the Shabak has found a "stain" in his past which prevents him from moving freely in the seam line zone), and is the reason for denying him passage. While we all were trying to look into the matter, Officer A. instructed him to wait by the farther parking lot.In the evening I called him and found out that later in the day, he was allowed to go to Barta'a.On our way home, we stopped to show solidarity at a rally at the Ara junction for the unrecognized village of Dir al-Hanun.