'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Sun 23.11.08, Morning

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Place: 
Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
Tura-Shaked
'Anin checkpoint (214)
Tags: 
Detainees
Seam Zone
Observers: 
Yocheved G, Chana H (reporting)
Nov-23-2008
|
Morning

Translated by L.W

06:00 Aanin Checkpoint
The checkpoint opened at 05:30 and we already encountered 30 men on their way to work. At the checkpoint we can see nothing because the people waiting on the side of the village are on the hill slope, but we can hear the shouts, "Back, go back!" the pace of exit from the checkpoint is three men per minute. They tell us that people who want to transfer oil and olives are sent back. A tractor belonging to a beduin from a tribe living in a nearby wadi is detained then sent back. A youngster who arrived at the checkpoint, but was found not to have returned home that same day, had his permit taken. He was given a month’s extension, and now passes with his mother’s ID.

06:30 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint
The checkpoint opened at 05:00. There is no crowding despite the fact that only one window is functioning. Pedestrians from the West Bank pass in 15 minutes, but wait for the cars for another 20 minutes. They contend that the speed of checking of vehicles is dependent on the presence of the supervisor., and in his absence the procedure takes much longer.
Today we met a group of workers organising to act against pickers from Israel who are taking their livelihood.

07:03 Shaked-Tura Checkpoint
The checkpoint is open and the first worker is coming out of the inspection room. About 30 people are waiting by the turnstile at the entrance to the inspection room. There are loud arguments about the line. Six passenger cars are waiting to go into the Seam Zone. Workers on bikes and donkeys are passing without being checked inside. Apparently olive picking has ended and already fewer people are crossing. At 07:10 they begin to pass cars from the West Bank to the Seam Zone. Each check – two minutes. They tell us that the soldiers are not making precise lists of returnees in the afternoons, and the next morning they confiscate permits from men who they claim did not return in time yesterday. When they apply to the DCO to get a new permit, they are given the runaround and this interferes with completion of the agricultural tasks necessary after olive picking.

Children are passing to school immediately, without checks. Students go through one by one with an ID check. A teacher who crosses every day at 07:20 in a car is stopped at the gate, and only passes at 07:30 after getting out to talk to the soldiers.


07:45 Reihan-Bartaa Checkpoint

Two cars being checked under the roof – 20 minutes. Everything routine, apart from the garden developing and changing from day to day. Within the terminal considerable pressure, unusually, and only one window functioning. One problem case is delaying everyone else. People coming out now were inside the terminal for 40 minutes.