'Anabta, Ar-Ras, Mon 24.9.07, Afternoon

Ar-Ras 13:50 

Traffic is very heavy, compared with what we saw in former afternoon watches.  Cars enter Jubara with no delays.  Cars from the Tulkarm direction pass with almost no inspection.

When we reached the soldiers' post we found an elderly man sitting comfortably on a chair, at the bottom of the post, waiting to be permitted to enter Jubara.  According to what he said, his family is there and he wants to visit them on the holiday.  He lives in Ramin.  He has no permit and the soldiers hope that maybe we could help. The brigade didn't authorize this "breach of the law " and the at the DCO [District Coordination Office] they didn't understand why he didn't take care of getting a permit for himself, a permit that would have been granted without any problem.  Jubara, as is know, has the status of an Israeli place of residence, the entrance to which requires a permit – how could he have not thought of this?

All our efforts did not succeed, but this time we saw soldiers that really would have been happy to help (in the course of our attempts on the phone we spoke with Kamil in Bethlehem.  We congratulated him, hoping that his transfer was a promotion).

Anabta 15:00 

Traffic is flowing without delays.  It seems that the soldiers too are more comfortable if they don't have to be strict. 

A Palestinian truck carrying pesticides was not allowed to enter Tulkarm.  The DCO officer on site instructed the checkpoint commander to summon the blue [civil] police to handle the problem.

With complete lack of enthusiasm we drove on to Beit Iba.