'Anabta, Eliyahu Crossing, Jubara (Kafriat), Tue 28.7.09, Morning
Eliyahu Gate
06:45 – Fifty workers are standing in line. They say that the waiting time is so long that they have decided to make a list to organize the line. One woman soldier checks ID cards and another soldier checks the people and their belongings. One of the workers tells us that in order to get to work in time, he sometimes pays someone before him in the line to swap places. The place is very crowded and the workers start squabbling. The soldier yells at them in order to establish order, making them go back and stand behind the gate and demanding to enter three at a time.
At 07:35 we leave.
Ras Atiya
08:05 – Except for 3 soldiers standing in the checkpoint there are no other people there. One of the soldiers tells keep away. We ask if we can enter the village to visit a certain family that we visited two weeks before. The soldier checks with the commander but the permission is refused. We leave at 08:15.
Eliyahu Gate
08:30 – About 10 workers are still in line.
Anabta
09:20 – The traffic is flowing. A peddler we meet tells us that sometimes the soldiers don't allow him to cross the checkpoint on toot, which forces him to go by a minibus.
We leave at 09:35.
Jubara
09:50 – We ask the soldiers at the checkpoint to enter the village. They call to get permission. Ten minutes later we are told there is no permission to enter the village even though we visited there two weeks earlier.
At 10:05 we leave on our way to Tel-Aviv.