AM

Jubara, Tuesday morning, January 20, 2004 Observers: MM, LR, UG and EB (reporting) 06:45: U.G. and E.B. parked by the “Schoolchildren’s Gate” in Jubara. Hovering above us were two helicopters - one police and one military. The police helicopter looked especially suspicious. Indeed, 15 minutes later when the soldiers came to open the gate, one of them came over and asked with a smile if there was someone from Kfar Shmaryahu. I [E.B.] confessed to this. The gate was opened exactly at 07:00, and the children went through.There were no special incidents during the shift, apart from the depressing routine. A child who’d come from the direction of Tulkarm was pulled along by his shirt-collar – a soldier sat him down near the roofed area. A short time later, he was released by another soldier, who looks like our “collaborator”. An ambulance from St. John’s Hospital in East Jerusalem, that serves as a mobile clinic, arrives in Tulkarm with a medical team to treat people with eye disorders. We talk with the team, and one of the women said she’d like to join MachsomWatch. I relayed her request to the Jerusalem team, and hope she’ll get an affirmative answer. We see one of the people who owns land in Jubara but lives elsewhere and can’t get in to cultivate his plot – he looks agitated and fed-up. Edna has been working on his case for some time now. Let’s hope it works out. Traffic is flowing, permits are checked perfunctorily.