Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
06:20 Barta’a-Reihan
Many workers are wait for their transport after passing the checkpoint. Most are working in construction in the new community Harish. Passage is quick and there are no complaints.
We pass to the entrance of the checkpoint on the Palestinian side, along the route that workers follow after their day’s work, which is empty now in the morning. We exit next to the checkpoint from the Palestinian side.
06:30 – 06:45. Ayad, who has taken on the organizing the queue and has been doing this for a number of months, continues to arrive every morning at 05:00. He greets us and says that everything is in order … every few minutes the turnstile opens and about 50 workers pass. Occasionally young people try to bypass the queue, but Ayad scolds them and they move aside.
The carpark is full of cars. Apparently they have not yet started checking trucks.
06:45. We return to our car and leave.
07:00 Tura-Shaked checkpoint
On the seam zone side there are no waiting cars, and only 4 people waiting for transport. The checkpoint has only now opened, instead of at 06:30, and people are coming out very slowly. Those exiting are angry with the soldiers “who come when they want,” and are angry with us “who only talk and don’t do anything …”
A teacher, pregnant, asks not to pass through the magnometer, as she is concerned. We tell her that the machine is checked by doctors, but this does not reassure her as she has to pass every day.
07:20 Many cars are passing from side to side and people are waiting for their transport. Some are going to work in their fields which, they can reach only by passing through the checkpoint daily, and some are travelling to the nearby industrial zone, or even to Harish, to work in construction.
07:30 There are about 40 people still waiting, but passage through the checkpoint is a bit quicker.
We leave.