Reihan, Shaked, Sun 18.12.11, Morning

Share:
Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Email
Observers: 
Yochi A., Ruthy T.
Dec-18-2011
|
Morning

Translation: Dvora K.

7:00 Shaked-Tura CP

The gate on the West Bank side is now being opened and at 07:05 the first worker reaches the gate to the seamline zone. Young people and students go through in the direction of the West Bank and workers arrive from there. The school principal's broken-down car is pushed down the road from the CP to help him get the ignition going, and, when he returns, we ask the soldiers not to make him turn off the engine during inspection, and that is what happened. Alltogether, the inspection of the cars entering the West Bank is quick and superficial. At 07:24 the children arrive in Y.'s yellow Transit. The inspection is quick, a light touch to the school bags, and that's that. But a child who arrives with his schoolbag closed is asked to open it. We drive two teachers (a man and a woman) to the school in Umm-Reihan.

7:50 Reihan-Barta'a CP

A long line of cars leaves the vehicles' inspection area: five trucks and pickup trucks loaded with goods are waiting on the road. In the parking lot on the Palestinian side, in a shed, a woman of about 80 is sitting and waiting for her son and her grandchild, who are supposed to arrive from Barta'a. She thinks they are delayed in the terminal. Workers arrive in a taxi and enter the terminal immediately.

We go up again, to where the drivers, who are taking people to Barta'a, park, One of them, H.K., tells us about an incident that took place eight days ago, on Saturday. He was beaten by those in charge of the CP, M. and A., because he did not obey their orders to move his car and to present documents. After two hours he was taken in an ambulance to the hospital in Jenin. Since then they haven't allowed him to go through the CP with his taxi so that he could make a living. He has turned to a lawyer from 'B'tselem for help'.

At 08:17, four cars leave the inspection area. Workers who entered the terminal at 8:10 leave at 08:25, almost all of them busy putting on coats and closing their belts. At 08:30 we wonder as we observe a long red car come up the sleeveinfo-icon leading out of the inspection area; a car on the way to the West Bank, polished to perfection. The driver and the passenger, young and elegant, are sent to sit in the shed opposite and car is inspected thoroughly, including its 'stomach' and internal organs under the cover of the motor. It looks to us as if this is an exceptional inspection and the people who work in the CP are apparently instructed to inspect cars that raise a suspicion of criminal activity. And the fact is that the three ordinary cars that went through afterward – were not inspected at all, and their passengers only had to show their IDs and permits.