Ar-Ras, Habla, Irtah (Sha'ar Efrayim), Wed 18.8.10, Morning

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Aug-18-2010
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Morning

Translation:  Suzanne O.

 

Chabala

6:40 a.m. 

The gate is closed.  On the other side there are a few tens of Palestinians waiting for the opening.  Tom contacts the DCO.  Answer:  The people who should have been there had to go to another project which has caused the hold up.

6:50 a.m. 

A military vehicle arrives and two soldiers alight.  We ask the reason for the hold up.  Soldier: "If Arabs decide to jump over the fence in a different place... there are hold ups.  There's nothing we can do."

We wait for the military police.  Tom contacts the DCO again.

7:00 a.m.

A jeep drives by without stopping.  We approach the soldiers again and ask them to find out what is happening.  Soldier: "If they make problems, this is what happens."

7:05 a.m.

The gatesinfo-icon finally open but still no one crosses.

7:17 a.m.

The first people go in for inspection.  The first five leave and, to our surprise, smile and greet us with "Good Morning", without getting angry.

7:20 a.m. 

Another five people cross through the gate.  There are no complaints this morning.

7:25 a.m.

We leave while there are still tens of people queuing, relatively quietly, to cross.

 

Sha'ar Ephraim

7:30 a.m. 

The traffic flows. 

The turning onto Road 574 north: the slip road is not paved.

 

Jios - agricultural gate

7:45 a.m. 

We meet a man and a woman at the entrance, they live in Jios.  They are at the gate observing like us.  According to them the gate opened at 7:30 a.m., and closes at 8:15 a.m.  This morning a number of farmers crossed.  A young man crosses on foot and a second on a donkey.

7:55 a.m.

We leave them and continue on northwards.

 

Sha'ar a-Ras

8:15 a.m. 

3 soldiers come over to us wanting to know who we are.  We request permission to drive onto the Security road and after a quick telephone conversation it is granted and we drive to Te'enim Crossing.  At the roadblock there are soldiers and police but all is quiet.