'Azzun 'Atma, Sun 2.8.09, Morning
07:20 ‘Azzun ‘Atma. There are 50-60 people crowding around the exit from the checkpoint. A female soldier inspecting outside and another one seated in the booth inspects the IDs that the people going through push through an opening.
Inspection of the IDs is rigorous but rapid, 15-20 seconds for each one.
We try to talk to the checkpoint commander, who says, I can’t talk to you. When we insist and say that since he’s the commander he’s allowed to talk to us, the soldier doing the inspection comes over to help him: We’re
not interested in talking to you
But, we should note that the commander as well as the soldiers carrying out the inspection behaved politely to the Palestinians. The soldier smiled at them and wished them a good day at work, and the commander, when a woman arrived wanting to enter the village, immediately opened the gate for her, calling “Come on, ma’am!”
An Israeli police vehicle was parked next to the exit from the checkpoint when we arrived, and it remained the whole time we were there. A policewoman who got out and came over to find out what we were doing there told us that their presence was routine.
07:50 there are about 20 people in line.
We left the checkpoint.