A'anin checkpoint: "Why aren't they opened on the other days?"
06:00–07:45
6:00 Barta’a checkpoint: The upper parking lot and the roads around it are teeming with vehicles picking up the thousands of workers coming up through the long sleeve
. A few of them are praying in the huts, a few are drinking coffee in the kiosk, but most of them are hurrying to work. Both turnstiles at the exit from the terminal are going round and round nonstop to let the workers out.
At 6:30 you can feel a let-up in the congestion but large numbers of workers are still coming through. At this time of the morning, workers are also returning to the West Bank from nightshifts in the Shahak industrial park near Tal Menashe.
A'nin agricultural checkpoint: This is considered an agricultural checkpoint and is therefore opened only twice a week, although most of the people who’ve been crossing over recently (residents of A'nin) are going to other jobs and during the rest of the week, they have to make a detour and drive to the Barta’a checkpoint in order to get to work. At 6:45, lots of people have already gathered on the other side of the barrier, but the solders open it only at 6:55. Three tractors cross first and then pedestrians enter the checkpoint area one-by-one. Beside the gate, two solders check the workers’ backpacks and a third checks their permits. Around 130 people pass without a hitch and the question remains: “Why don’t they open the barrier every day?”
On August 17, we reported that one of the residents of A'nin had had his permit for Barta’a checkpoint revoked, while the District Coordination and Liaison unit claimed the permit was valid. It transpired that the resident’s son had parked the car registered in his name somewhere where it was not permitted next to the Barta’a checkpoint and the commander of Barta’a checkpoint had personally and permanently denied him entry.
7:30 Tura-Shaked checkpoint. Around 30 workers and four women cross from the West Bank into the Seamline Zone. Some of them get into cars and go off to work. Some walk towards the village of Daher el Maleh. The school year has begun and junior high school girls cross from the Seamline Zone towards their school in Ya’bed. Palestinian cars with passengers cross over in both directions.