Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked

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Observers: 
Anna N-S. (Reporting); driver – Pierre, Marcia L., Translation
Sep-7-2016
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Morning

Barta’a Checkpoint, 06:00
People come out of the terminal at a quick pace, 4 inspection windows are working, most of the workers are young people, aged 30+.  In the upper parking lot, transportation vehicles are waiting to take them to work. 

In the Palestinian parking lot there is a long line; about the same number of people enter the terminal while the same number arrive and join the line. That is way the line still long.  I followed up on a man with a red lunch box and it took him 5 minutes from the time he joined the line until he crossed the terminal and left.  Many trucks wait to be inspected in the truck parking lot or on the near by road.

I met a family – parents and a child about 6, whose arm was bandaged to the elbow after an operation.  They were on their way to Tel HaShomer Hospital (Tel Aviv) and a vehicle in the upper parking lot was waiting to take them there.

Some of the workers stop to drink coffee at the kiosk on the way out of the terminal, in the "sleeveinfo-icon".  There are concrete benches and a table. The owner of the kiosk and his wife (settlers from Mevo Dotan) are there. Those sitting around the coffee table are contented.  They joke around with the settlers... The atmosphere is relaxed; the Occupation is erased. "Life looks lovely!"

Tura-Shaked Checkpoint, 06:40
The checkpoint is open.  On the side of Tura, the Palestinian village, about 25 people wait for the opening of the inspection booth.  Around 07:00, the first person leaves the checkpoint.  After him, people come one after another, among them also women, but the pace is slow.  An impressive man says, “We are collecting money for soldiers so we can buy them a new computer…” and then he laughs.

Young pupils in uniforms enter and cross the checkpoint on their way to school.  A small girl of 7 takes the hand of a youngster of about 4, who is holding a green helium balloon. Two little ones, who live in "isolated house" outside Tura, study not in the nearby Tura but in Umm Reihan. Now wait for an adult to pick them up.  Workers leave for their olive plots, others leave to build in the settlement of Shaked. 
The checkpoint is quiet, running at its usual pace.  Even the garbage container is empty “as it should be.”