'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
We and the soldiers arrived early. At 6.30 passage begins and the first people are already going through. Also the D.C.O. vehicle arrives. Men and women are coming for the olive harvest, some equipped with the necessary sticks, rakes and sacks.
A Palestinian car arrives at the checkpoint from the seamline zone. The driver is an A’anin inhabitant and he has a permit to cross in a car at Barta’a checkpoint. He tells us that the journey in the seamline zone costs (in an improvised taxi) 10 shekels; from A’anin centre to this checkpoint 2 shekels, and from the checkpoint to A’anin 5 shekels. A man found with a stick returns frustrated. They didn’t let his 15 yearj-old nephew to pass. The brother himself is ill and cannot go to work. The youth does not yet have an identity card or permit, but his uncle has his birth certificate and written permission from his father. After a few minutes the uncle and nephew told us that a telephone call from the soldiers to the D.C.O. solved the problem.
A tractor driver complained, not for the first time that his wife has no permit. She has to come to the D.C.O. at Salem, but she cannot travel there alone and her husband and son do not have time to take her. A trap.
07.00. All have passed. They lock the gates
. Someone says that 100 people passed – we did not count. Some ask us if , in our opinion, there will be rain today.
07.10. Tura-Shaked checkpoint.
A group of pupils arrive and all have to enter the hut for checking.One of the workers says that usually pupils pass without checking. We do not know why today is different and the soldiers don’t tell us. Children of the single [isolated? house arrive, and they, too, have to walk around and enter for checking. A little girl, who arrives alone, struggles with the heavy door of the hut.
07.40. Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint.
A few people are waiting the seamline-side for transport. Cars are waiting to transport people working in Barta’a, who will soon be arriving. In the Palestinian parking-lot, three guards and a parking attendant (with a set of 5-shekel parking tickets) are arranging things. The parking lot is already full; the additional parking lots at the top of the road, not yet. People arrive in small groups and go directly to the terminal.
Seven heavily loaded trucks enter for checking. 10 minutes before the time! 7.50.
08.00. We leave for home. The answer to the question of the A’anin farmers about weather, soon comes: a deluge in Wadi Arra. A call to our acquaintance M. tells us that in A’anin the rain was not strong there. But many took advantage of the noon opening of the checkpoint during the olive harvest (12.00-13.00) and returned home early.