ברטעה

Yocheved and Hori picked up a young mother and her little daughter in Haifa, at the Rambam Hospital, in order to bring them to the Barta’a Checkpoint, on the way home in the West Bank.

15:10  At this hour, there are few people passing the Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint. 

15:25  There are more workers returning home from work but there is still no pressure.  Groups come, some of them need to identify themselves by machine and some pass through directly without having to identify themselves.  Almost all the minibuses bringing workers are Israeli.

15:40   We leave in order to get to Anin Checkpoint at the time it opens.

16:00   Anin Checkpoint
There are 2 tractors loaded with sacks of olives in front of the checkpoint, and about 20 Palestinians returning from the harvest.  Men, women, young men, and even a donkey loaded with sacks of olives.  And who wasn’t there?  Soldiers . . . it was a very cold day, hazy and windy.  In the meantime, more and more people come who want to return to the village from a long day’s harvesting.  I try to call the Coordination Office but they don’t answer. 

16:20  The soldiers arrive but they can’t get close to the gate in order to open it because 4 loaded tractors stand opposite the gate and there’s pressure from about 100 frustrated people.

The situation is frightening.  The people move with difficulty and when the soldiers open the gate, a stream of people and tractors fills the platform before the inspection point.  In spite of that, they organize to allow the women to pass first and after they pass, the soldiers try to impose order.  They refuse to allow people to pass if they would not back off and leave the area.  The people refuse to leave and the atmosphere gets very tense.  I stand next to the fence so that the soldiers can see that someone is observing them.  Four soldiers, who were late in opening the gate to tired people, stand in front of them with drawn weapons and the tension in the air rises.  In the end, the Palestinians got in line, the tractors passed and after them people who had already passed the gate. 

After them, people passed the gate in a more or less orderly line.  All this took about 20 minutes.

16:45   After everyone had passed and the tension lessened, a few more people arrived and passed through in a hurry.  The soldiers wait until 17:00 and then close the gate.