'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tayba-Rummana
Anin Agricultural Checkpoint, 15:00
All those returning to Anin are riding on a few tractors, some of them pulling wagons loaded with scrap of different sorts, which they will sell for recycling. The soldiers do not check their documents or their scrap and therefore it looks strange, and perhaps typical for the afternoon, that all the tractors move in a convoy past the exit from the checkpoint to the descent and disappear from view.
The checkpoint is operated by a unit of Bedouins who have returned from army exercises in the South. Soldiers of this unit don’t search the Palestinians and according to most, they are allowed to pass quickly without delays. We spoke with one of them, A., a resident of the Galilee, and again we saw the great frustrating gap between what we know and think and what the soldiers know and think.
Barta’a Checkpoint, 15:30
Heavy traffic but not crowded. Palestinians return home to the West Bank after a day’s work in Israel and the seamline zone, most decisively young. Everyone passes through the carousel on the side, on the path that surrounds the terminal. Those who worked in Israel are not delayed and those who worked in the seamline zone approach the machine that examines their permits.
Tayibe-Rumana Agricultural Checkpoint, 16:00
About 20 people, including a woman and a child, wait patiently for the opening of the gates
to the checkpoint. They say that sometimes they are late in opening and sometimes not. Border Policemen operate this checkpoint; they are already here and finally everyone passes through in five minutes, without checking documents. Once they were diligent about registering those returning to the villages in order to catch those who leave in the morning but don’t return home.