Habla

At Izbet Salman CP a man on a tractor wasn’t allowed to cross because he hadn't arranged for a permit for the tractor. They explained to us that the reason for the fences and for the passage permits is to prevent terrorist acts. It is not clear what terrorist acts one can perform with a tractor, with or without permit?

And the people wait and wait and one has to think how it must feel, going out each working day and returning, and just waiting. Is it comparable to our experience when we wait in traffic jams? All of us wait, but we can chooseand drive when it suits us, and decide which road to take; we don't need passage permits and we are not subject to the soldiers’ whims. This is the difference between a free person and a person subject to occupation.

12:40 – Izbet Salman CP

On both sides of the barrier there are already people waiting for the opening which is due to take place at 13:00. One man arrives from working in the fields, with his wife and two little girls of about 3 and 4.

We talked a little with the waiting people: they arrive from Azun Atma, Beit Amin and Izbet Salman. The Jalud gate doesn’t open anymore at noon, only in the morning and in the evening – they switched from the olive harvest routine to the ordinary routine. The sewage from Elkana/Sha'arey Tiqva again flows in the area between the gate and the road to Izbet Salman-Azun Atma, and causes, inter alia, a great hindrance for the passage of pedestrians.

12:55 – The soldiers arrive and open the gate. The people returning home fall in a queue and begin getting registered by the military policeman. The registration is quick, and so is the passage…

A man arrives on a tractor from the other side; they don't let him pass because he has no permit from the DCO. The soldiers are pressed to shut the gate, and the pleas by the people passing to let the tractor pass anyway are not granted by the soldiers, who must see a DCO permit, and they decide to cross with the tractor. The tractor driver remains in the West Bank.

13:05 – The gate is closed.

13:25 – Hable CP

13:30 – The first car passes, after which people begin to cross.

The passage is quite quick. A man with cart of used furniture passes. Since a fortnight,  sheep and goats are allowed to pass, after a period of a few months during which they were not allowed to go out to pasture in the seam line zones. It turns out that the authorization was give after the herd got injections, vaccinations and markings.

13:45 The children's bus passes for a Ramadin evening.

A pickup truck filled to the brim with sacks arrives from the West Bank, and its passage is prevented. It seems the driver lacks the appropriate permit. He turned around and returned to the West Bank, and after about 25 minutes the longed for permit arrives and he passes, breathless, seconds before the closure…

14:10– They begin closing gates for pedestrians. The last ones to arrive pass outside the turnstile.

An elderly man, with three children of different ages, argues with the soldiers who don't allow him to pass. He doesn't have the original document, only a photograph of one of the children's documents. The child's father tells us that this is the reason his son wasn't allowed to pass and return home, and that he remained beyond the fence with a relative. We didn't manage to understand what would happen to him in the future.

The gates are closed.