Shaked, Rihan

Shaked, Rihan, Thursday, December 30, 2004, PMObservers: Shula, Mara (reporting)12:15-14:30Shaked, 12:15 - From a distance, we saw pupils from the enclave villages who attend school in Ya'abed (in the West Bank). They were walking on the "Israeli" side of the checkpoint. According to them, until January 6, there is an exam period in which they finish school at around 10:00-11:00 AM, and the gate doesn't open before 12:00. After that period, they will go on vacation for 20 days. Classes resume on January 26, and the times will go back to normal, 07:00 -12:00.One recent report spoke of cameras at the gate, where the soldiers can see pupils waiting by the gate and then come to open it. We saw no sign of such cameras; apparently they are well hidden.Rihan - 13:00 - We got out of the car across the road from the pedestrian inspection post and observed the soldiers. A few minutes later, one of them had greeted us with a smile and we were under the impression that this was our lucky day, where we 'hit the jackpot' with a nice shift. We asked politely who the CP commander was and with whom we could speak. Immediately we were assaulted by two or three soldiers who charged at us in an aggressive tone of voice: "Do not talk to us, we are not allowed to speak with you. It is none of your business, talk only to the company commander, move aside, get off this concrete, do not bother us , go over there."We do not come to the checkpoint to "talk" to soldiers, but if the ban on talking with us is an explicit order (and it appears to be that way), then whoever gives such an order and agrees to the way Israeli soldiers talk to other Israeli citizens (who are of an unknown species – neither settlers nor Palestinians) teaches a disgraceful lesson in human relations.An Israeli-Arab couple from the village of Mukeibla, returns from a visit to Jenin. The man stays in the car while the woman is sent to be inspected by the metal detector. Mukeibla is an Israeli-Arab village, located about 500 meters from Jalama. But why should they be allowed to cross through the Jalama gate, if they can be given the runaround a while longer? While she is waiting to be examined, settlers pass by in their cars without anybody even noticing them.The change of shifts brought to the checkpoint Staff Sergeant H. , an exemplar of polite human behavior. He asked us not to talk with the soldiers, but coming from him , it is a totally different ball game.Fuad. the Salem District Coordination Office (DCO) commander, helped (on the telephone), to solve a problem of a resident of the village of Kappin, who holds a passage permit, but was denied passage by the previous shift. He needed to go to Barta'a to pick up his oil and the sacks of olives from his orchards, located near the old Barta'a gate. Staff Sergeant H. agrees to look into the matter with the DCO and later allows the man to go through the gate.Another resident of Kappin, the owner of 20 dunams (about 8-9 acres) of olive trees near Barta'a, can't get a passage permit from the DCO, in order to get to his lot and trim the trees and cut the weeds. He has a magnetic card valid through January 5. But without a permit the soldiers would not let him in: "Very sorry, sir."A third resident of Kappin needs to run an errand in Barta'a. The permit in his hands states that he can go to Barta'a only through the gate in Baka, and this is what the soldiers tell him. But in order to get from Baka to Barta'a he needs to enter Israel, and then he'll be considered a "shabach," a person who stays in Israel without a permit, and is subject to a fine.