Irtah, Jubara, Anabta

Irtah, 27.02.2005 PMObservers: Alix W., Dvora S., Aliyah S., Susan L. (reporting)Summary: Today it was so clear: a theater of the absurd withdisjointed, repetitious, and meaningless dialogue, purposeless andconfusing situations - a state of affairs both surreal and illogical.In spite of the characters' obvious interdependence, theprecariousness and fundamental arbitrariness of their lives suggestshow little they are able to control their own existence. 13:45-14:30Irtah13:45 Because the 25.2.05 Tel Aviv suicide bomber was said to hailfrom a village north of Tulkarm, we expected something at Irtah, butnot the sight that greeted us. A long, long line of vans, trucks, semi-trailers: completely unusual for early afternoons. The drivers told ofwaiting for their "back to back" turn three to four hours." Everyonesuffers" was what we heard over and over again. Some fruit -strawberries - are offloaded on to the heads of two waiting women, whosaunter casually across to the other side. A pile of clothing isoffloaded on to a cart, which is wheeled across, reminding us ofgarment districts anywhere in the world. Those drivers who driveacross are made to leave their blue ID's with the soldier, to returnto them when they come back.13:55 A representative from the DCO office arrives: "there's a wholeorganization of terrorists," he remarks to us, "not just one." As forworkers trying to cross into Israel, he tells of 1300 (yes, onethousand three hundred) today, many of whom arrived at 3:00 a.m.,although the checkpoint doesn't open until 6:00, or 6:30 (about thathe was much less precise). "And they were all checked by 8:00 a.m.(again, the precision creeping back into his voice).14:15 We cross to the other side of the gate, to the Tulkarm side,where there's a vast assortment of trucks. The DCO rep., himselfyoung, joshes with a group of young Palestinian drivers (in Arabic).The drivers are all waiting for their merchandise to be checked. Aparticularly patient one declares, "I understand why." What we don'tunderstand is the slowness of the checks. One soldier holds a handscan and goes over each huge plastic bale of something. One of us askswhy only one soldier is involved in this. But efficiency is not thename of the game here, nor has anyone given thought to some kind ofcoordinated effort to get goods moving at Irtah. 14:25 The female captain (the one who had showed us proudly round thenewly finished - but now unfinished - terminal months ago) arriveswith a lieutenant in tow. Work stops. Checking stops. Everybodytalks, smiling, and the Palestinians wait some more. 14:35 JubaraSurprise, surprise, the soldiers let us park the car outside AbuGhatem's house. He's there, looking much healthier than a couple ofmonths ago, and we visit his wife and daughters in the courtyard oftheir home, greeted as long lost friends. 15:15 AnabtaIt's not busy this week, but since we've spent so much time at Irtahand visited Abu Ghatem, it's later than usual. There's an APC parkedat the unmanned barricade, but the soldiers (three or four of them)are inside, failing to enjoy the soft spring air, the richly coloredbright green grass, the silvery stream in the valley below or theflowering hillside above. They are asked why they think thischeckpoint still exists. "Because our superiors say so." We wonder iftheir superiors have also asked them to create two new, mirror-imagemini checkpoints. By the bright yellow taxis on either side of thebarrier are lines of small rocks, seven or eight on one side, seven oreight on the other. Over that, the taxis on one side must not park.Over the seven or eight on the other side, those taxis must also notpark.