'Anin, Mevo Dotan (Imriha), Reihan, Shaked, Thu 3.1.13, Morning

Translator:  Charles K.

A’anin checkpoint  06:05-06:45

Cold and dark.  The sun is taking its own sweet time.  The soldiers inspect at the middle gate the people who are waiting at the lower gate, out of our sight and earshot.  Those coming through report the soldiers are “ok, good.,” which means that “they’re not causing problems today” [if you have a valid crossing permit].  A resident of A’anin who lives with his wife in eastern Barta’a visits his parents in A’anin every week.  This checkpoint opens only twice a week, which doesn’t fit his schedule of visits.  He applied at the DCO for a crossing permit at the Shaked checkpoint (which is open every day), but was refused.  Someone else says his eldest son, age 17, can’t get an agricultural permit to cross daily to the seam zone.  We 

referred him to the humanitarian office.  Everyone coming through asks how we are and greet us happily.

Shaked-Tura checkpoint  06:55-07:15

The soldiers quickly get organized to open the checkpoint.  A pole blocking the road on the Tura side is blinking red – no one may cross until it is raised.  There’s no end to the innovations at this checkpoint, jammed with a plethora of remarkably ugly installations for directing people and vehicles.  Now the sun, which was delayed at A’anin (low clouds), arrives, dawning beyond the barbed wire.  Once again we realize – there’s no denying it – that Israel isn’t the center of the universe.    Exuberant children get out of the vehicles that brought them and cross quickly to Tura without being inspected.

Dothan-Yabed checkpoint  07:30-07:50

Traffic flows with no delays - west toward the seam zone and east toward Jenin.  An armed soldier wearing a large yarmulke approaches us to find out who we are.  He’s a deputy company commander; his name is Yishayahu, named for  Yishayahu Leibowitz, who was his father’s teacher.  He believes that everyone crossing here is first and foremost a human being, and agrees that the occupation is evil and the checkpoints may contribute more to terror than to security.  He doesn’t hide his views from those under his command, and knows they don’t all agree with him.

Reihan-Barta’a checkpoint  08:10

Eight loaded trucks wait on the road to go through.  The crates of fruits and vegetables are wrapped in plastic.  The parking lots, from the hill opposite Z’beida to the large lot at the checkpoint itself, are full of cars whose number keeps growing.

Barta’a  08:30

Regards from Walid.