Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked

05.50. Barta’a checkpoint.  In the upper carpark cars and workers are waiting for transport, and next to the food kiosk there is a lot of activity. The lower carpark is not yet full and at the entrance to the checkpoint there is no queue and everyone arriving enters at once. Two small children pass with their mothers who are loaded with packages, on their way to hospitals in Israel. Inside the terminal 6 windows are operating and the exit turnstile works without pause. The workers come out of the turnstile, stop to fasten their belts and, while doing so, tell us that on Wednesday (Memorial Day) the checkpoint was closed because of an explosive device discovered on a truck on its way to Barta’a. People who set out in the morning to work in the seamline zone, were turned back home via the Tura checkpoint that was very crowded. The truck owner is an inhabitant of Um Reihan (he transports in a cold truck meat to the Barta’a market). Many members of his extended family who live in Yabed and in Zabda were arrested and their entry permits confiscated. A. who works in Shaha”k (the industrial area in the seamline zone) tells us about rumours  that a road is to be built that will shorten the route from communities of the West Bank directly to Shaha”k.

 06.40. Tura checkpoint.  The checkpoint is open but there is no one passing yet. People begin to enter the checking room only at 6.45. About 40 people and 13 cars pass to the seamline zone and cars pass to the West Bank. The number of people passing here has decreased noticeably lately. Three women pass the checkpoint to the sewing workshop in Shaha”k. The tell us that in this workshop they sew bed linens and there are about 40 men and women working there.

07.10. Schoolchildren arrive and pass quickly without checking.