Falamiya North Checkpoint (914), Falamiya South Checkpoint (935)
5:50 – We arrived at the CP and met the first arrivals, among which was our Hebrew speaking friend A.I. who asked where we had been these last weeks… This was the last day of the Ramadan and in the evening Id El Fitr would begin. We learned the blessing: kul 'am wa-intu bekheir!
6:05 – The CP was opened and it was clear that the girl soldier was familiar with the persons passing. The chain with the lock which opened and closed the gates
had been replaced by new locks which were welded to the gates and which were supposed to be more comfortable and not require chains. It seemed that those too were not fully adapted and the girl Military Police officer had great difficulties opening them.
The Palestinians passed by the path intended for them, being used to show their documents and permits and further on to read out the number of their ID. The tractor drivers among them returned after the checking to their tractor to wait to pass by the wide gate intended for this. As if “everything was OK”… The owner of the donkey who tried to pass with it by the path intended for humans was returned: the donkey had to be tied, the man had to pass by himself and then when the gate for tractors would be opened he should return and make the donkey pass…Order has to be!
6:45 We arrived at the southern gate, where the Jayyus people pass, and here they didn’t use the gate of the path, and let everybody (a very small number) pass by the wide gate. All the Palestinians seemed happy that this difficult month had come to an end (the Hebrew speaker among them said: “you too fast on Yom Kippur” and when we answered that we didn’t it was difficult for him to accept that we “didn’t believe in anything” and he explained the matter to his Arabic speaking colleagues.
We drove back by the shortcut to Jayyus and were (very favorably) surprised that the road which led us to the schools had been entirely tarred and paved. On the way we also stopped opposite another Jiyus CP, but nobody arrived there and the waiting military car went on its way.