Tora-Shaked: Always dirty and desolate

15:05 – Barta’s-Reihan Checkpoint, The Seamline Zone side

“There need to be rights for an old person,” with these words we are greeted by a man of about 60, tired from the walk up the sleeve that twists between the terminal and the parking lot of the Seamline Zone.  The sleeve became very much longer in the last months.  The man’s brother went up to check-in with his car and the man wasn't permitted to accompany him.  The man translates children’s books to Arabic and they are published. He had pretty colored booklets of “Hansel and Gretel” in his hands. We go down the sleeve together with the workers who are returning to the West Bank.  Workers are engaged in roofing on an old section of the sleeve.  We photographed a bit and were caught. They forced us to erase the photos.  Female students who returned from Jenin told us that the university there was closed because of the new lockdown.

15:45 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint

On the way back from Barta’a Checkpoint, at the junction T, an army vehicle blocked traffic in the direction of Umm Reihan, Katzir, and there is a traffic jam.  We

are at the intersection where the big traffic jam was only beginning. We were permitted to turn eastward to Tura Checkpoint.  The place was empty and filthy as usual.  We didn’t stay there, because there wasn’t time and also because, in the meantime, we learned about the very heavy traffic on the roads that lead north. A female soldier who directed traffic at the junction agreed to say that the road was blocked because of a march.  From the little we were able to see, we concluded that there was a demonstration after the death of Esther Horgan, from Tel Menashe, whose funeral had been held a few hours previously.  We were turned around in the direction of Barta’a Checkpoint.  A very long line of cars was already created in the lane opposite us.