'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 15.9.08, Morning

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Observers: 
Barb (guest from the USA), Neta G., Anna N. S.
Sep-15-2008
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Morning
Seriously? Does this make us safer?
Translation: Devorah K.

05:05 Reihan CP
The first of those leaving the terminal are walking up the sleeveinfo-icon. In the lower parking lot there are dozens of people standing in perfect single file as if in officers' line-up. The seamstresses arrive. In the shed about 20 people are praying. In the courtyard at the entrance to the terminal there are dozens more men, some of whom are praying. At the moment the passage is halted. About 100 people are waiting outside the terminal. Inside the terminal there are a few dozen. Barb, our guest, photographs the orderly queue of those waiting, just as we always do.

05:15 - People go through in fives, alternating groups of men and women. From the bus stop, I observe how things proceed all around the CP. Six pickup trucks are waiting for the inspection compound to open at 6.00. Four private cars are being inspected with the help of a barking dog.
 
05.40 - All those who were waiting have entered the terminal.
A security guard arrives, and introduces himself as S. L., the person in charge of the morning shift at the CP. He is openly hostile. He tries to get me to leave my place and after a short argument demands that I stop writing things down. Despite how ridiculous he is, I give in and do not do any writing while he is around. Now he turns on our guest: takes away her camerainfo-icon. It is not clear on what authority he does this, and he calls the police to come and arrest us. According to him, as a foreign citizen, she has no right to stay in this place and he can send her to the occupied areas so that she will return to Israel through the proper CP. He holds it against us that we have brought a foreigner to this CP. After some negotiating and after we turned his attention to the site to see the reports and the photographs from other CPs, he leaves us in order to consult with somebody, and after that, having deleted the pictures that were taken, he returns the camera.
 
06:10 A'anin agricultural CP
According to the first people who leave there are 80 to 100 people waiting. As usual, it is hard for us to see the inspections and the record-taking that is going on between the lower CP and the middle CP. Toward the hour of 7.00, the tempo of passage accelerates. A large proportion of those going through are young people in their twenties.

06:
20 - There is a tumult in the lower CP. People are yelling and shouting. The soldiers are closing the middle gate and opposite the locked gate they allow the people who have been waiting below to come up. These people continue to fight with one another and the soldiers stand opposite them with their hands in their pockets, indifferent but with their weapons drawn. An older man approaches the fence and tries to explain something to the soldier in broken Hebrew and with hand jestures. The soldier points to the back and the man retires. A Hummer arrives with reinforcements. Only after the Palestinians organize themselves in a single queue at the end of the educational lecture given by  the soldiers, is the gate opened for the continuation of the crossing.

06:
35 - About 10 people are waiting in the CP and we leave.

07:
25 Shaked CP
People say that since 07.:0 about 40 men and women have gone through. Those leaving from the West Bank crowd near the turnstile at the entrance to the inspection facility. The proceedings are routine. Teachers (men and women) from Umm el-Reihan arrive from the West Bank.  
07:50 - The first of the pupils go through with no delay.

08:
30 Reihan CP
A few people go through to the West Bank and from the West Bank to the seamline zone. Four pickup trucks enter for inspection. A bus from Barta'a goes through at the vehicle passageway to the West Bank. The passengers get out, the driver hands over the ID cards that he collected from all of them to the person in the hut. About ten minutes pass before he returns the documents. Passengers pass their magnetic cards over the wall of the hut and present their documents for inspection  - routines of the occupation.

A man and a woman in modern dress leave the terminal in the direction of the West Bank. They are Israeli Arabs who teach in the American University on the outskirts of Jenin. they claim that in the recent past they could get to Jenin in their own cars; today they are required to travel there by means of Palestinian transportation. They complain about the impossible pressure in the terminal, especially when they come back at about 4.00. They claim that the passage is slow. The CP is manned by too few inspectors. A. tells us that yesterday afternoon the computer broke down and about 350 people were stuck in the terminal. Another person claims that there are people who break their fast in Barta'a because of the circumstances.

09:
00  We left.