Habla checkpoint (1393)

The routine of occupation, all  according to “law and custom”, but the welder who holds a permit and works in the greenhouses and crosses each day with his oxygen cylinder needed for his job, is not allowed to cross. Why? Because!

6:00  The soldiers are here but they are not in a hurry to open the gate. The gates open at 6:10 t(hey ae supposed to open at 6:00) and the soldiers try to do the job efficiently. An additional checking point, inside the shed, is opened and the line ends rather quickly. After that whoever comes crosses rght away or awaits a very short time. 130 people crossed.

From 7:00 cars start cossing, as well as donkeys and horses, in both directions. A man with his sheep herd on the Israeli side cannot return them or take them to pasture in the fields of Habla. It is over a year that he was promised that the matter will be solved but nothing was done (it doesn’t require 300 milllion shekels, just good will). So how do we call it? – “routine of occupation”.

An elderly couple arrives and the woman’s bag is checked thoroughly – maybe because it is a “lady’s” bag and not just a plastic bag.

At 7:15 the school children on their way to school cross easily. The teachers cross from Habla on their way to the school in the village Arb Ramadin.

The welder is not allowed to cross with his oxygen cylinder although he does it every day. Since it was near the closing time and the owner didn’t manage to take the matter up with the DCO (the person who answered the phone didn’t know what to do with the request and the officer in charge of the passages was not available), the welder will stay in Habla and try again to cross in midday. “Routine of occupation” said already? Half day work gone to waste.

Towards closing we went to checkpoint 1417 Beit Amin 

The gate near Oranit is closed with a new sign “Closed military Zone – Violators will be punished”. Left of the gate the fence is somewhat removed with a gap convenient enough for passsing through. Flow of cars arrive from the direction of Elkana. We asked one of the drivers from where he is coming and he answered that they were directed from Elkana to go on this road to Tel Aviv! This means violation of the law, since all citizens who come from Elkana Shaarei Tikva drive in a closed military zone. As the gate was about to close in 10 minutes we didn’t have time to cope with the authorities. We decided to  give up and return home – 1.5 minutes drive that takes 20 minutes in the morning.