'Anin, Reihan, Shaked, Mon 17.3.08, Morning

Share:
Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Email
Observers: 
Shula B. and Neta J. (reporting)
Mar-17-2008
|
Morning

Translation: Devorah K.

06:05 A'anin CP
The gatesinfo-icon are open and the first person goes through. About 50 people and five tractors are waiting. The tempo of the passage is very slow, as it has been on all the days when the A'anin CP is open during the last two months.
06:45 Two soldiers with their weapons drawn are going to close the gate in the direction of A'anin. No latecomers will be able to go through.
06:55 In the area between the fences there are still about thirty people and two tractors. We leave.

07:05 Shaked-Tura CP
Children are running to school in Tura. About 20 people are waiting to go through from the West Bank to the seamline zone. Some more pupils arrive and go through without undergoing inspection. Three children from the house that stands by itself (it belongs to East Tura on the West Bank, but is on the other side of the fence in the seamline zone) arrive in a wagon drawn by a donkey. Clerks from the Ministry of Education in Jenin go through to the West Bank after inspection in the pavilion, in a car that belongs to one of them. A resident of Hirbet Raadiyeh complains that the villages in the seamline zone, Dahar el Malek, Hirbet Raadiyeh, and Umm a-Reihan have not been connected to electricity, even though the village of Tura, which is on the other side of the fence, and even the isolated house have been.

07:30 Reihan-Barta'a CP
Those emerging from the terminal through the sleeveinfo-icon to the upper parking lot, on the side of the seamline zone, complain that the inspections in the interior rooms of the terminal take an hour to an hour and a half.
We went down the sleeve and found something new: a large part of it is now covered by a metal grill like that of the fence. Why? It is still not clear to us. We look forward to seeing how the work continues.
Two posts for inspecting documents are open. There is no crowding around them. One of those going through says that the occupation is hard (what a surprise!) and in the terminal people are in "cages like those for cats".

07:50
In the lower parking lot, the Palestinian lot, eight pickup trucks loaded with agricultural goods from the occupied territories, are waiting for inspection and for passage to the seamline zone. West Bank residents who work in East Barta'a arrive and are swallowed up into the terminal.
M. tells us that in the morning, they had to wait for a longer time than usual in order to enter the terminal, "because they have a holiday on the weekend." It seems that Purim is celebrated for a whole week in the CPs.

8:20
We left and drove to East Barta'a. Impressive construction is being done at the eastern entrance to the village: two lanes separated by a structure, roundabouts and street lights.
We visited A.'s nursery and also one of the sewing workshops. The seamstresses, whom we know from the CP, are busy working and barely take the time to smile and greet us. They are making bed linens for export.

We also visited the local council and there we heard about the procedures for granting Palestinian citizenship to people, especially to women who came from Jordan, got married to residents of East Barta'a, and over the years lost their Jordanian citizenship, but have not received any other citizenship. They are "transparent people." Of a list of about thirty people that the local council presented to the Palestinian Authority, only seven were approved. We wondered what part Israel (more specifically the civil administrationinfo-icon - the bureaucratic apparatus of the occupation) plays in the process of granting Palestinian citizenship.