Falamiya North Checkpoint (914), Falamiya South Checkpoint (935), Jayyus

05:50  Falamya north 914.  The gate isn’t open yet.

The soldiers opened the gate late, at 06:00. Immediately and rudely they asked the waiting farmers to move back.  People entered quietly and in an orderly manner, accepting the decree.  One soldier stands at the gate inspecting IDs and lunch containers.  This process takes a long time because there’s only one soldier for 70 people.  A farmer near me complains the line moves slowly, as though food is being handed out to prisoners.  He says once the area was filled with citrus groves, but because there was a period during which it was closed off, the groves dried up.  He repeatedly asks, “Why do I need a permit to access my land?”

The soldier works slowly, the inspection drags on, people are getting fed up and move around  the area of the outer gate.  The soldiers ask them to move back; when they don’t they close the gate and stop inspecting. 

We noticed that tractor owners, after being inspected, hand their ID to the soldier on their way to the tractor, and when they bring the tractor through the gate he returns it to them – bureaucracy for its own sake. 

One woman sat on a tractor’s hitch.  There were 14 tractors and one car.

06:55  Falamya south 935 – Because inspection at Falamya north took a long time the soldiers arrived late to this gate.  One man told us he got married at 16 and now, at 39, he has grandchildren.  He arrived with four children, but one had only a birth certificate and no permit.  He was forced to return to Jayyus.

A total of seven tractors and two cars came.

Jayyus south:  the gate remained closed; no one waited to cross.