Tura checkpoint: A soldier asks us not to disturb public order!
15:30 Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint
On the way to the checkpoint, at the exit from Harish, border policemen are stopping and inspecting vehicles bringing Palestinian workers back from their work in Israel.
At the checkpoint itself, there’s a lively movement of workers coming back home, mainly from Israel. We go down towards the terminal with the workers. An Israeli truck driver who arrived at the checkpoint by mistake instead of driving to Harish is asked by the security guard how he got there. After showing his documents, he turns round and leaves. On our return to the hut in the upper parking lot in the seamline zone, we have our first meeting with a group of Palestinian waiters who work in Israel, who have met our associates many times.
16:10 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
The shoulders of the road have been widened with kurkar stone (thereby covering up some of the endless garbage here at the checkpoint), making it easier for cars to make a U-turn, which they have to do here. Four cars have each been waiting at least 10 minutes to cross into the West Bank. Six or seven cars arrive from the West Bank after a light inspection. One of the drivers, an elegant and respectable man, who is carrying equipment he bought for his home in Umm Reihan in his car, tells us angrily that he was held up for an hour and a half at the checkpoint even though he had made sure in advance to “coordinate” the goods in his car as required in the occupation rulebook. A huge tractor driving east on the security road is kept waiting for the (new?) gate east of the checkpoint to open and comes up to a truck that’s waiting not far from there. Work is being done on the wall.
An army vehicle stops beside us and a soldier asks us not to disturb the public order. Unbelievable!