'Anin

14:50 – Anin Checkpoint

workers gather slowly, as well as two tractors and two older people who return with purchases.  One person told us that despite the fact that he has several olive orchards in the Seamline Zone, only he received a permit to cross the checkpoint, after they canceled his son’s permit in December and now they won’t renew it.

The soldiers come on time, and, exactly at 15:00, the passage begins; they enter one by one.  The soldiers delay a tractor filled with scrap and they photograph it from all angles.  An argument broke out between the tractor owner and the soldiers.  The owner tries to convince the soldiers that the scrap is junk and they claimthat he has to coordinate the passage of merchandise.  After he telephoned the Liaison and Coordination Administration and spoke to whomever he spoke to, a permit for the scrap arrived at 15:20.  

About 20 people passed through the checkpoint.

15:25 – Tura Checkpoint

The checkpoint was quiet and almost empty.  Two people crossed from the Seamline Zone to the West Bank.  We noticed that there were many military vehicles on the street.

We travel to Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint.  On the way, next to one of the pillboxes (guardposts), soldiers were standing behind stone barriers; next to the checkpoint where an attack had  occurred, flags were waving.  The atmosphere is quiet and Palestinian vehicles travel on the road in both directions.

15:50 – Barta’a Checkpoint

An endless stream of workers leaves from the checkpoint and flows down to the lower parking lot.  Some of them are returning with various kinds of merchandise which they load on to the cars in the filled parking lot.  The food stalls were removed from the shed. Next to the bridge, they are selling cakes.  All that is left is the prayer corner.

A young man from the village next to Salem turns to us with a problem: his wife and his two children live in Umm-al-Fahm.  He has a crossing permit for Barta’a checkpoint and for Anin checkpoint, which is good until June 2018. However, this afternoon, when he tried to cross, they told him, without an explanation, that the permit has been canceled and so he must return.