יום ג' 23.10.07, בוקר

Rihan, Shaked, Aanin, Tuesday, 23.10.07 am

Observers: Leah R, Anna NS (reporting)

06:05 - 09:20

06:05 Aanin Checkpoint

The checkpoint opened at 05:30. The first to come out are sitting on the edge of the pavement and waiting. The soldiers did not list them today, and they are worried about what will be when they return and they are not recorded as having gone out. A scrap of a notice is hanging on the fence, giving the hours of exit and reentry and the phone numbers of the DCO and the Centre. Transit is routine.

A man who tried to cross with tools and a barrel of water on a tractor is refused. He returns home, leaving everything there. A phone call to the DCO elicits the answer that he could have passed with the load.

According to the locals, some 60 people passed by 06:50, and according to one of the soldiers the number is 80, in a slow, nerve wracking performance.

07:00 Shaked (Tura) Checkpoint

The checkpoint opened, the soldiers are processing casually. Nothing hurries them. Agricultural workers are crossing from the West Bank. From the Seam Zone the traffic is mainly schoolchildren, students and teachers. Few cars passing in both directions. The small schoolchildren open their satchels in front of the soldiers, as always. Garbage is strewn on the road from the emplacement to the checkpoint gates.

07:20 Rihan (Bartaa) Checkpoint

Regular though limited traffic to and from the West Bank. Noticeable considerable investment in the exterior appearance of the checkpoint, but less in the human relations aspect. Taxi drivers sitting idly, smoking, drinking coffee, discussing. What will they do? Walid joins. He’s also in the group. Somebody gets up, prepares himself coffee on Walid`s stand, places a coin and returns to his seat. Abu I. in his eternal red keffiya, lies on a torn mattress, his back to us. Sleeping?

M., who in his better days worked as a journalist, proudly hands me a "book" he has written about women active in the West Bank, who he has photographed and documented. Then he approaches a group coming out of the terminal and asks in a low voice "to Jenin?" no answer.

There are still no toilets. The gardening stops at the upper parking lot. Who cares?

R. from Yabed says that noontime yesterday he was working with his son in his olive grove close to the system road. "New" soldiers passed and told him to clear off. He refused. They shouted at him, in front of his son, and then coinfiscated his identityt card. In the evening he came to Dotan checkpoint, and, with indifference, the officer there returned the ID.

H. is elderly and after a serious road accident. Platinum plates have been placed in his body during orthopedic surgery. He has difficulty walking, difficulty speaking, difficulty breathing (asthmatic) with an inhaler ( moves with great difficulty, leaning on a metal crutch, to the terminal as he does every day on his way to Bartaa where he works as a tailor. Leah asks one of the drivers in the checking line to take him to the upper checkpoint. The checkers refuse to let him through without a permit. Leah tries to locate one of the people with authority but does not succeed. She tries to appeal to the personal conscience of the checkers: "Look at him, see how he walks..." A soldier whispers to me that it`s not good to create precedent. "Tomorrow, another cripple will come..."

Later Leah is told by one of the supervisors that, as long as the old man is not in a wheelchair, he must pass through the terminal. "That`s the orders." So the old man was forced to walk the "Via Dolorosa" of the terminal rooms, leaning on his crutch. We drive to meet him at the exit. On the way, going up the path, a group of military men passes and we present to them the problem of the man who can barely make his way. We present documents. How is it possible to be so indifferent?
The DCO representative promises to help. In an evening phone call, we are told by the civilian supervisor of the compound that H. will no longer be required to pass the terminal. Good ending? We will follow up.

09:20 we leave.