'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 10.5.10, Morning
The checkpoint is open but no one goes through. The soldiers say that they'll begin right away (the computer is back in order) . True in a few minutes passage begins. About 30 lucky ones cross the gate on their way to work, some of whom riding on a tractor.
0620 - We recognize an elderly man, grey-haired, who has been standing for a while by the soldiers. His body language appears nervous. We hear yelling "call Salem" etc. From those going through we learn that his sister died suddenly during the night, the man has no valid permit, so the soldier refuse to let him pass.
This is how it's written in the books; common sense and consideration stop by the erased border.
At the DCO our call is answered by a soldier who says he has to call an officer. I remind him that the checkpoint is about to close in a few minutes. He'll get back to me. 10 minutes later he says that the officer doesn't answer. He'll continue to look into that and we have to leave. Later we've learned that the man went to the Palestinian DCO in Jenin. Money waisted, driving time, aggravation, honor....all irrelevant. We had a hard talk with the head of the Salem DCO' Adel: The man needs to get to the Palestinian DCO and from there a proper request would be sent for him to attend the funeral. In the DCO they'll approve the request or not, and later, God knows.... Its impossible to work this way when every day someone dying and we need to let people through without permits. Perhaps special regulations could be arranged for such cases? especially in light of daily repetition of such occurrence? No answer.