Reihan, Shaked, Sun 6.12.09, Morning

Translation: Bracha B.A.

Reihan-Barta’a Checkpoint
Workers are waiting for their rides in the upper parking lot.  It is beginning to rain.  A few people are coming out of the terminal.  A woman that we saw entering the terminal came out within 10 minutes.  We hear the low voice of a woman in the area of the turnstile amplified by the speaker, “Ruhi l’Salem!  At lo overet!” (Go to Salem! You can’t go through!) and then, “Ofer, I sent Nafsa back – is she a seamstress?  Then should I let her through, Ofer?”  Finally Nafsa goes through, but only today.  Tomorrow she will have to go to the Liaison and Coordination Administration at Salem to arrange the matter of the biometric machine which would not read her palm print.
The machine malfunctions every now and then, causing many workers to have to go to Salem, wasting work hours and expensive travel, and it appears that there is no hurry to repair it.  The manager of the sewing factory in Barta’a reports to us a conversation that he had with one of the managers: Today they will let all the seamstresses through, but tomorrow anyone who hasn’t been identified today will have to make the effort and go to Salem.  The head of the Liaison and Coordination Administration at Salem, Lieutenant Colonel Adel, claims that the problem has already been fixed and promises to help overcome it this time as  well.
The lower parking lot is almost empty.  A few cars are parked there and whoever arrives (either in A.’s car or on foot) enters immediately, unless an army vehicle is crossing the checkpoint on the cement road at that moment.  In that case there is a long process of opening and closing electric gates and people waiting at the entry gate to the terminal are not protected from the rain.

At 06:40 a taxi arrives with passengers on their way to the West Bank.  At 06:50 we left and the taxi was still at the gate, its passengers waiting outside.

07:00 Shaked Tura Checkpoint
The gates are open but passage has not yet begun.  Two cars are waiting on the seamline zone side and there are relatively few people on the West Bank side and a few cars.  This morning there are no flocks of livestock.  Three people are going towards the inspection facility – a banker who is extremely well-dressed, a high school student - the daughter of the school principal in Yaabed who is studying for her matriculation - and another young man.  The school principal is waiting to be called for inspection with his old car.  There is some delay and it is not clear why.  There are 17 classes in his school.  He has to earn a living for a family of eight with a salary of NIS 3,500 [per month].  About 10 nine-year-old children go through without being checked.  The principal goes through at 07:20.

We hurry to get to |Jalameh to pick up Aya for her treatment at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, but she has already been picked up by someone else.