Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
15:00 – 16:05
15:00 – Tura Shaked Checkpoint
The checkpoint is quiet, cars pass in two directions. A number of pedestrians and one student return from Jenin to the Seamline Zone.
15:20 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
Students – Arab Israelis, men, women and children return from the direction of the West Bank to the Seamline Zone. Palestinians who worked in Israel and in East Barta’a, begin to return home to the West Bank. The two biometric checking machines stand useless in the deserted shed; no one approaches them.
Once, all the workers who returned home through the checkpoint, would approach the biometric machine, insert their magnetic cards and also place the palm of their hand so that the machine could read their fingerprints. Today they don’t examine this way and the machines just stand there, orphaned.
15:30 – The stream of workers return from work is mounting; everyone passes through quickly to the other side of the checkpoint.
A Palestinian turned to us and told us that his 23-year-old son has a valid permit, but every morning, they treat him badly and delay him an hour, two hours, and after, allow him to go to work. We didn’t know what to suggest.
Another story we heard was about a barber from Hebron who received a permit to go to Israel for five days in order to look for work. He found work, however, in Umm-al Fahm but suspects he won’t receive a permit for work because the rumors are that permits can only be received only if there is an arranged request from an Israeli employer.