'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Thu 8.4.10, Afternoon
Translation: Bracha B.A.
Cows from Ein Sahala continue to eat the crops belonging to the farmers of A'anin.
Agricultural permits are given out sparingly.
Shaked-Tura Checkpoint, 13:35
There is little vehicular and pedestrian traffic in both directions. A man drives his wife and two small children to the West Bank. The woman goes through the inspection booth, while the father and children drive through in the car.
The road leading from Um el Reihan to Mei Ami is being widened. A security vehicle is blocking the road to A'anin and when we tell them we are going to the A'anin checkpoint they let us through.
A'anin Checkpoint 14:40
Six tractors, two bicycles, a donkey, and a few people are waiting for the checkpoint to open. The soldiers have already arrived.
One of the wagons is loaded with beans. The farmer told us that he planted beans and onions among his olive trees. Cows from the Israeli-Arab village of Ein el Sahala ate all the onions and left only a little bit of the beans. One person tells us that he finally received a permit after three months. Another tells us that he received a permit but his sons did not.
At 14:55 the soldiers opened the checkpoint and people passed through relatively quickly.
We left the checkpoint at 15:20. A tractor, two women, a boy, and an old man leaning on a walking stick managed to get to the checkpoint before it closed at 15:30.
15:30 Reihan Barta'a Checkpoint
The Palestinian parking lot is completely full. Underneath the shed are containers of oil – not olive oil but soybean oil from the industrial zone Ad Halom near Ashdod. Next to them, in co-existence, are containers of tehina from Nablus.
Two cars are waiting to cross to the seamline zone, and one car is waiting to cross to the West Bank. An Australian of Palestinian descent has come to visit with his father. The father is staying with relatives in Barta'a and the son wants to visit his mother-in-law in the West Bank. After a lot of checking he is allowed through. He wants to get a pass to allow him to cross throughout his visit. The people at the humanitarian hotline told him to call the officer from the central command in charge of public appeals on Sunday.
The seamstresses are coming back from work in East Barta'a and returning to Jenin by taxi. Other workers are returning to the seamline zone.
16:15 A doctor in the parking lot on the seamline zone side sees our tags and asks us if we can do something for him. He has a medical laboratory in East Barta'a and he buys equipment in Jenin. Getting the equipment through the checkpoint is hard, and he is afraid that the equipment will be ruined or contaminated because of the inspections. The equipment can be bought in Israel but it is much more expensive.
We go down the sleeve
to the entrance to the terminal. Workers are returning from work. One inspection window is open but people are still going through quickly. One worker offers us oranges. The flow of workers increases and they open another inspection window without our intervention. One worker lives in Zbada near the Reihan-Barta'a checkpoint and works in Netanya cutting down trees. He has to get up at 03:00 to get to the Irtah checkpoint that opens at 04:00. He says the situation at Irtah is better, but he would prefer to be able to cross at Reihan.
We left the checkpoint at 16:45.