'Azzun 'Atma, Mon 6.4.09, Afternoon
Headline of the day: "Hope is a good thing. But the truth must be spoken."
17:00 – ‘Azzun ‘Atma
People arrive in small groups and as individuals to return home through this checkpoint. One of them left his ID here previously with the female soldier on inspection duty. According to her gestures, it seems as though he is a bit late, but he gets the ID back and enters the village.
Another man requests to leave the village, but is refused. The soldier inspecting says to a young man with a duffel bag: if you want to leave, it is only with a permit.
17:12 A man who works in Sha'arei Tikva talks with us in fluent and elegant Hebrew. He is the one who says, with a bitter smile, the sentence: "Hope is a good thing. But the truth must be spoken."
A woman asks to leave the village. By her movements, we understand that she wants to cross the road, but the soldier doesn't allow her to. Afterwards, a young man arrives. He goes out and returns in a few minutes weighed down with packages of clothes and blankets.
When there are no people waiting, the soldier turns to us and tells us that from today only people with work permits in the settlements and Israel can go out through this checkpoint. The rest of the residents of ‘Azzun ‘Atma can leave the village only through "Gate 5", the old checkpoint.
17:23 – We left.