Anabta – There are no soldiers. An army jeep is parking on the side.  

9.30

Irtah – We enter the checkpoint trying to get a glance of the rooms, but of course, a guard immediately orders us to move away. We manage to read the sign that wishes the people coming out “a pleasant and safe stay”, how considerate! No doubt that the guards of the civilian administration are trying very hard to make the workers feel good when they start their day at the 

A man coming out through the turnstile tells us that he has spent an hour and a half at the checkpoint, even though there is no line and very few people are passing at this hour. Another Palestinian complains that he has been waiting for two hours.

They complain and tell us that the checkpoint is closed between 8.00-9.30 and 10.00-11.00 on Fridays. It is important to find out why.

The two Palestinians who are talking to us have many more complaints about the checkpoint and the way it is working, complaints we have heard many times before. We ask the guard, who sent us away, to talk to the person in charge, but he is not present at the checkpoint, and neither is his deputy. (We are not surprised by this answer.) We demand to meet the person who actually is in charge at the checkpoint this very moment. He says that he will tell him. The guard does not go to the main building and we do not see him calling anybody. When we tell him so, he claims that he has called. After 15 minutes we turn to him again. This time he says that he boss is at a meeting and he does not know when it will end. We are waiting another 10 minutes, but of course nobody shows up, so we leave at 10 o’clock.