'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
15:10 Anin Checkpoint
Due to traffic on the way, we arrived ten minutes after the checkpoint opened, at 15:00. When we reached the checkpoint it was open and people had already passed through. Four people arrived at the same time as us and immediately crossed.
Will electricity finally be brought to Daher el Maleh?
15:30 Tura Shaked Checkpoint
On our way to the checkpoint we see digging alongside the road. The digger’s operator tells us that it is being done at the behest of the Israel Electric Corporation in order to connect the checkpoint and the village of Daher el Maleh to the grid. We’ll keep track of the work’s progress. A Google search confirms that the village isn’t currently connected to the electric grid because there isn’t an approved masterplan. It also says that the village has appealed to the Supreme Court with the help of the NGOs BIMKOM and Physicians for Human Rights.
There’s almost no traffic at the checkpoint, just expensive and unnecessary installations.
16:00 Barta'a Riehan Checkpoint, Seam Zone side
On our way to the checkpoint we pick up two hitchhikers, residents of a village adjacent to Jenin, who work as painters and as floor-setters in the Riehan settlement’s new development, billed as being “seven minutes from Harish.”
In the parking lot on the seam zone side we see a car waiting for men who arrive formally dressed and carrying musical instruments. The driver, a musician himself, explains that they are famous musicians from the West Bank who are coming to perform at a wedding in Tur’an, an Arab village in Israel. We wished them congratulations and good luck.
Many men on their way home from work are hurrying toward the checkpoint and we follow. The crossing is quick, though there’s congestion at times at the carousel, which has trouble accommodating so many people at once. A number of people greet us warmly and ask after our health. Only a few cross in the opposite direction, from the West Bank into the seam zone. One tells us about his friend, who doesn’t speak Hebrew, who has a mark on his permission-- namely he’s detained every time he crosses because of something that comes up on the computer. But he’s finally allowed to cross.
16:20 We go up to the parking lot, ‘swimming against the current’ of people which continues to stream toward the checkpoint.