Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim)

We arrived before 4:00. The people waiting for the gates to open were not crowded today, the last day of Ramadan.

The first people passed through the checkpoint in five minutes, later it took ten minutes. It was very quiet.

We were glad to see that the request from our last report, for extra lights in the parking lot, has already been taken care of.

One man requested, as others have often done, that the checkpoint open earlier on Sundays and Fridays. On Sundays an extra fifteen minutes makes a big difference in the feeling of crowding, and on Fridays when the checkpoint opens later he has trouble getting to work on time. He said that for the last twelve years he has worked in agriculture, on a moshav nearby, and he earns 160 shekels for an eight hour day. When he asked for a raise his boss said plenty of people would be glad to take his place.

We noted the great difference between busy Sunday mornings, our usual time at the checkpoint, and this Thursday in Ramadan.