'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
15:30 – Anin Checkpoint
This agricultural checkpoint is open only twice a week now, Monday and Wednesday, as the olive harvest officially ends, but opening hours are not known ahead of time; it is opened when the soldiers find the time. We meet four workers and there is a tractor filled with sacks of olives; all are waiting. The workers tell us that not everyone has finished the harvest in their plots.
The checkpoint opened this morning only at 07:00 (a delay of half an hour) and no one knows what time it will re-open. At 15:45, which is the official opening time (according to the DCO)? At 15:30 - if the soldiers have nothing else to do? At 15:55—which is what the soldiers told us once? “But when we are late, we are threatened.”
15:55 – We telephone the DCO; the soldier promise to find out. At 16:05 we telephoned again, and again, she promised to find out. At 15:55 we left for Tura checkpoint, and later, we were notified that the checkpoint had opened at 16:15.
16:10 - Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
The checkpoint is quiet, and filthy, as usual. A family with children returns from Jenin in a car. A few vehicles cross in both directions, and the passage is quick.
16:30 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
Hundreds of workers return from work in Israel and the Seamline Zone and go down the sleeve
(the enclosed passage to and from the terminal). The kiosk is open, offering a selection of pastries. This means that a lot of people are crossing the checkpoint now, like before the time of Corona.
The sleeve still lacks full covering, but workers are busy expanding the checkpoint’s communications system.