Reihan Checkpoint
Today, like yesterday, the gates
opened at the correct hour, 05:00, the machines in the terminal functioned properly and, by 07:30, all the workers had crossed. Passage was smooth and fast – and the people passing have expressed their satisfaction.
Of course there were also appeals by "prohibited": the vendor in the Palestinian parking lot has been blacklisted since 1995, and says that he worked eight years for a farmer in Pardes Hana – and was a painter by profession. Another, a merchant, has a 33-year-old son who has been arrested at age 14 for throwing stones, and couldn't get a magnetic card. The father wants the son to work with him, in Israel, and is asking for help. And there are more such appreals. Tami records details and instructs people what to do, promising to help as much as she can.
At 07:40 we already saw pickup trucks loaded with produce, from the first group that entered at 07:00, coming out after inspection: a considerable improvement on the one and a half hours that we had seen in the past. The private cars entering the Seam Zone are also being checked efficiently, and there are almost no vehicles waiting to be checked – we saw only one, and he also did not wait long.
Today we devoted half an hour to observing of the passage of vehicles into the Palestinian Authority territory. A car stops by the post, the passengers alight, go one by one to hand over IDs for inspection, get back in the cars and drive off. In one case there was a bus from Bartaa, and a woman accompanied by a child ran down the sleeve waving to the driver. By the time we passed in our car to the lower lot, they had reached the bus and boarded. We asked why they had gone through the terminal while others did not. The driver said that the mother and child had missed the departure from Bartaa, and had apparently come to the checkpoint in a taxi. Transit was smooth and fast. One private car stood by the post at the entrance to the Palestinian Authority, with all its doors wide open. Three passengers went towards the slide and sat on the bench in the garden (it is used!!). Had there been a child, he could also have enjoyed the slide. The checker in the post, in a flak jacket and yellow vest, took with him a mirror attached to a pole, to pass under the vehicle. After the check, all returned to the car and went on their way.
A van did not receive permission to pass, so it returned in rear gear. We did not manage to talk to the checker to ascertain the reason.
Passage through tyhe terminal in both directions, was flowing and fast.
Everything would have been okay and even good if the gleaming and landscaped terminal had been on the Green Line.
For personal reasons we did not go to Shaked today.[
