'Anabta, 'Azzun, Eliyahu Crossing, Habla, Jubara (Kafriat), Te'enim Crossing, Mon 24.5.10, Morning

Translator:  Charles K.

06:45  Habla

The gate opened on time, and when we arrived the first five Palestinians had already entered the inspection building.  It takes about 5 minutes to inspect five people.  A group of women comes past and one remains standing for a long time outside the building and we can hear the female MP yelling inside.  Only when we inquire about the reason she’s standing there so long, the checkpoint commander comes over to find out, returns her ID that remained inside and sends her on her way.  It turned out that she’s mute and the soldier didn’t try to understand what the problem was but just yelled…

07:15  The school bus arrives, the commander submits the driver’s ID for inspection, the driver waits next to the guard tower and we chat with the children.  When the driver gets his ID back the bus moves forward slightly and the soldier who gets on removes two boys and two girls for inspection even though we’d been told that children would no longer be taken off the bus.

07:40  The bus drives off.  It turns out that they haven’t changed the time the checkpoint closes, so sometimes the driver has to call the DCO to send a soldier with a key to open the gates…Again they promised us that it’s being taken care of and will soon be ok.  We strongly recommend that the afternoon shift goes by the checkpoint to follow up.

07:45  Eliyahu crossing (109).  A few Palestinians are still going through.

We drove to Azzun via Izbat Tabib.  The yellow gate is open, as is the exit from Azzun to Route 55.  A Hummer with soldiers is parked opposite the exit.

08:05  Shvut Ami has been abandoned, but the path to the hill opposite (before Kedumim) is open and appears that it’s being used, unlike two weeks ago when it was blocked by boulders.  When people go past, they should check.

A Hummer with soldiers at the entrance to Kedumim, and soldiers guarding the hitchhiking station.

Jit junction is open, and in view of the announcement that additional checkpoints and roadblocks are being abolished, we checked the roadblock on the way to Sara that’s been there for a long time, and wonder of wonders…it’s still there!

08:20  The paving of Route 60 alongside the wall at Shavei Shomron has proceeded with the help of a donation from the United States, and work has already reached the Deir Sharaf junction.  The owner of the bakery/grocery/café where we stop to buy coffee and cake and to be updated on what’s new greatly hopes that when the road opens they’ll also abolish the roadblock on the way to Sebastya, that’s located opposite the entrance of the army camp adjoining the settlement of Shavei Shomron, which will make the lives of the residents much easier.  At present, someone who lives in Sebastya who wants to get to Deir Sharaf has to go through Nablus…Check when we’re looking into the “removal of obstacles…”

09:15  Anabta is open, but big brother watches us from the pillbox.

09:30  Te’anim crossing.  We ask them to open the gate to Hirbet Jabara.  The checkpoint commander knows we’re allowed to go there but he has to receive authorization.  It doesn’t arrive, nor do three phone calls to Tedesa, who promises to help, do any good.  Finally, the checkpoint commander comes over and says that, in the end, the authorization will probably arrive, for the moment there’s some problem at the checkpoint, and maybe the authorization will be granted in the next half hour.  Since we’d already waited half an hour, we decided to continue.  Fifteen minutes later Tedesa called to see whether we’d gone through.  He hadn’t heard of any problem at Jabara.