Hamra, Tayasir, Wed 26.11.08, Afternoon

Translating: B. B-A
 Tayasir Checkpoint - 13:10Only a few vehicles are present.  The checkpoint is terribly quiet.  Gradually children and teachers begin to arrive who are returning home, as well as several women students from the university in Tubas.  One of the cars contains 17 pupils and their teacher.  It’s difficult to understand why, but according to them it saves them money.  The driver, who passes through here dozens of time each day, smiles and says that today things are OK.

Hamra Checkpoint - 14:15

Dozens of cars are waiting on both sides.  When we arrive there are 33 vehicles on the westward side entering the West Bank and 27 on the eastern side going towards the Jiftlik, Jericho, and the scattered villages in the Jordan valley.  From the moment we arrive the cars begin to pass through quickly and the line gets shorter, but additional vehicles continue to arrive.  We haven’t seen people sitting on the side of the road, talking, smoking, and waiting like this for a long time.  Cars are not admitted simultaneously in both directions, only from one side at a time.  The checkpoint is then closed and the soldiers move to the other side and then back again.  The checkpoint commander, an officer, manages the passage of cars quickly and says that the long line “gathered suddenly all at once.”

15:30 - The checkpoint is almost empty.  Only a few cars arrive and everything is quiet.

16:00 – We left.