Habla, Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim), Wed 2.6.10, Morning

Translation:  Suzanne O.

Arta, the dawn shift

4:40 a.m.

The whole car park has been shifted to the sandy area.  There is heavy traffic entering, 3 turnstiles are functioning, each minute 30 - 40 people go through.  The public address system announces to some of the labourers that they must go back again to the magnometer.

5:00 a.m.

We moved over to the exit.  The turnstile at the exit creaks with everyone who goes through.  According to those exiting the inspections are swift today, and people wait for an hour or half an hour for transport to their place of work.  (We were asked to come on a Sunday because then there are problems.)

In spite of the slight anxiety felt before the meeting Nora and I found that no one seemed to be aware of the flotilla.  They have more pressing worries.

5:15 a.m.

The queue is still long but moves quickly and we could see the end of it.

Ayal

5:30 a.m.

Although the queue is not long there were complaints from those exiting about the inspection taking almost an hour.  Because of this they are forced to come so early.  We met a worker who introduced himself as a member of the workers' committee.  They have been made responsible lately for the organisation of the queue and stopping the pushing.  People stand in an orderly queue and enter accordingly.  A member of the committee looks after the queue every morning.  He complained about the long inspection in the rooms and that people are fearful of going through the x-ray machine lane so the other lane has a longer queue and takes more time.

6:20 a.m.

Those going through still report that there are lots of people in the building.

Chabala

6:45 a.m.

A military command car arrives to open the gate.  There were 2 people waiting, one with a pick-up truck and one with a donkey and cart, they will still have to wait ... the roadblock commander was extremely rude to us, claimed that we were interfering and closed the gate in our faces.  Meanwhile there was an electrical failure and we were all forced to wait for another quarter of an hour.

After a time a school bus arrived.  The commander let it wait for a very long time and then boarded the bus and started a lengthy inspection of the 'big children' (who are only going to their school in the village).  Meanwhile a military jeep, which appeared to be in a hurry, came.  It hooted in vain, then the captain got out of the jeep and ordered the commander to stop his inspection of the bus.   "And thus security was abandoned".