afternoon

Thursday, 11.12.03, afternoonPresent: Ch. A., R. D., R. H., Sh. K., N. R.Machsom Qalqiliya: We arrived at 2:30. The machsom was open. No one in the pedestrian lane. Light traffic. Two reserve soldiers check documents and trunks of the vehicles, just taking a sample among them. One of them we recognize for his previous hostile attitude. He seems more relaxed today. The second one asks us to move farther away, we refuse politely and a discussion develops: "Why don't you care about us, etc.?" We explain that we care about his humanitarian behavior. He argues with us but seems to take it seriously. The "machsom boys" and a peddlar from Qalqilya at the side of the road say that in fact the machsom has been open since the end of Ramadan. They complain that there is no work. The peddlar tells us that he has seven children and not a slice of bread. Next to the machsom there is intense work on the building of a border installation. Since we didn't observe any problems or much movement, we left after half an hour.Checkpoint Jabbara: Difficult atmosphere. About 20 young people held back at the side of the machsom, angry atmosphere and repressed violence. Since there was already a group at the checkpoint (under A. D.), we left in the direction of Taibeh. On our way to our car, an Israeli man stopped beside us in his car, and congratulated us on our work. In reponse to our questions, he said that he is a moshavnik and comes to the machsom daily to get and bring back his worker (female) from Tul Karem for the past 10 years. He says: "That is her bread, I will continue to come here at any cost." Moving.Checkpoint Taibeh (Tul Karem): A young soldier is manning the machsom, an additional soldier deeper in the field. Light traffic is checked by the second soldier, but things are moving. There are four people held at the machsom. We try to talk with them, unsuccessfully (speak only Arabic, and, to our regret, we don't). The soldier explains that they are illegal infiltrators being checked. In sign language, we understand that they have been held there for five hours, although, according to the soldier, it is only one hour, and he explains to us that he even gave them food and cigarettes. The officer of the checkpoint appears, Yaniv, whom we recognize from Jabbara; he seems more relaxed today, returns a document to one of those being held, and checks the others. Within a few minutes, they are on their way. We don't know if our presence had any effect. We left at about 4:30 with no other special events.