'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 24.3.08, Morning

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Observers: 
Neta G, Anna NS (reporting)
Mar-24-2008
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Morning

06:00 - 09:15

06:00 Aanin Checkpoint

About 50 people, tractors and a donkey waiting in the center of the checkpoint to cross to the Seam Zone. The pace is faster than usual. One boy is not allowed to pass.
06:30 – the soldiers close the lower gate. Forty people waiting quietly, the sun already oppressive. Some of the people are sitting on the railing, others move away, looking for shade. There is no roof or bench...
06:45 – an elderly woman, walking with difficulty, gives the soldier her ID then sits on the ground. Later she rises in agony, and plods towards the exit. Behind her the little old man with his grey donkey. He offers the woman a ride, and she climbs on with difficulty and they both disappear down the slope.
06:50 – ten people waiting.

07:05 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint

Cars, workers, schoolchildren and students crossing in the direction of the West Bank or the Seam Zone. The women students are not requuired to be checked in the hut. A mother, student with two young children, has to be checked. Two flocks pass into the Seam Zone while the shepherds are checked in the hut.
07:30 – a pair of teachers on their way to Jenin wait in their car, as they do every morning, and when the transit is delayed, the man goes to the soldier to speed him up. The soldier starts an "educational exercise": the car crossed an imaginary line. The front is inside the area of the checkpoint. Forbidden. The soldier sends the car back and closes one wing of the checkpoint gate.

07:50 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint

Everything is as usual. Only the decorations have changed. In the main square of the checkpoint, a white path has been paved in the red gravel up to the garbage bin. The well and bucket, an inviting bench... Our acquaintance B., a taxi driver from Dahar el Abed, has stopped working as a driver because he cannot bear the run around and delays each time he returns from the West Bank.
People coming out of the terminal say that a few score are waiting inside. According to one, they are holding 70 year olds and older for inspection in the small rooms. Why? Just because!
More than ten private cars, tenders with agricultural produce, waiting under the blazing sun. The drivers are sprawled in the shade of their vehicles and smoking.
The parking lot is clean, as the civilian boss wants it.
The toilets are dirty.
Tobacco planting has begun in the West Bank.
M. contends that quarantine has been removed and the age restrictions are not in force in Jerushia.
The parking lot in the area of Zabda is full. In the lot an improvised kiosk is beckoning customers with meat on the charcoal.
09:15 – we leave.