'Anata-Shu'afat
12:50 Anata - Shuafat
There was no line at the checkpoint for vehicles. But there was a long line at the pedestrian checkpoint: 40 men and women, some holding infants. There was nowhere to sit. We joined the line and entered after 20 minutes.
Before that, when we passed a bus waiting for passengers, a young man came up to us, pointed at the bus, and said: "Look at what the passengers must undergo. They are made to leave the bus, enter the checkpoint, go through the inspection, exit on the other side and re-enter the bus which must cross separately and wait for them there." He complained about the long lines, about the inspection of the children's food bags with "dangerous x-rays", about the rude behaviour of the soldiers ("dogs are treated better"), and concluded by saying "this way there will never be peace."
Last week a soldier told us that the problem will be solved "by the sword."
When we underwent the inspection by a soldier behind a window, we asked why a second window was not opened and he said there was no staff. But we could see in the room behind him people standing around and chatting.
The exit, like the entrance, was strewn with trash, and a dumpster overflowing with garbage.
On our way back, we passed the checkpoint at the entrance to Issawiya. Traffic crossed without disruptions.