'Anin, Barta'a-Reihan, Tura-Shaked
14:45 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
At this hour, the checkpoint is quiet and no one passes through. They have finally emptied the overflowing trash container, but the area around it is filthy with plastic bags, bottles, and used army disposable food trays that are scattered around it. This doesn’t bother the soldiers of the checkpoint at all. Only they use the container for their garbage (the container serves only the soldiers), so what do they care that at this checkpoint, called by the ironic name “the Fabric of Life”, the Palestinian residents and the children walking to school have to pass by these piles of army garbage!
15:05 – Anin Checkpoint
About twenty people and two tractors, loaded with junk, wait for the opening of the checkpoint. One of the people tells us that his son, a veterinarian, is not permitted to go through the checkpoint if he carries medicines. In that case, he can cross only at the distant Barta’a Checkpoint. According to the residents, 300 people from the village requested to renew their permits to pass through and only 82 received them. An man and a child pray on the road (with no rug; it is forbidden to kneel where it’s wet) and the soldiers who’ve come to open the checkpoint wait patiently for them to finish.
15:20 – The soldiers collect identity cards and permits from the people outside the gate and the passage begins at 15:25. The first person is called for clarification and this is his problem: He has left in the morning through the Barta’a Checkpoint, where he doesn’t need a permit because he is over 55. Now he wants to return home through the checkpoint but that isn’t easy. First they have to check his clothes. Are his shoes and clothes dirty enough to prove that he indeed returns from agricultural work? Now the rest of the people enter in groups of three, and the passage is quick. Two tractors also pass. One more worker is delayed. At 15:30, a vehicle arrives with two soldiers. They take the permits from two who have been delayed and allow them to pass. However, (as best we were able to hear), they will probebly have to go through a hearing.
15:45 – Barta’a Checkpoint
Three of the parking lots are full of vehicles. The one close to the checkpoint is orderly and allows for movement. Two Palestinian security people with a club and phone maintain order. Many workers go out from the terminal through the new installation, in narrow, enclosed lanes. Some of them ask for Sylvia’s phone number.