'Azzun 'Atma, Habla, Jayyus
Jayyus, ‘Azzun ‘Atma north, Habla, Mon. AM, 1.9.14
Observers: Shoshana Z., (Photos), Nina S. (reporting)
Translator: Judith Green
06:30 Jayyus north
The gate opened late, at 06:20, and many people were waiting in line, with various vehicles: a cart with a donkey, a tractor and several vans. The passage was swift, and at 06:40 all had gone through and the gate closed. It was supposed to have been open from 06:00 to 06:30! The local people said that it only opened at 07:20 yesterday; everyone simply stood and waited. It turned out that those supposed to open it are frequently called upon to fix problems along the fence and then are late in opening the gate. The old gate is still in operation and they "threaten" to open the new one in the middle of the month. This will assist some of the people, while others will have to make a huge detour in order to get to their orchards. As usual, each positive event includes something bad along with it.
07:30 ‘Azzun ‘Atma north
We traveled there because we heard that there were problems in the passage of students in the morning, those going from Beit Amin to the school in ‘Azzun ‘Atma. Last week, the problems were solved after the Ecumenical escorts called the DCO and the hotline. Today, it was quiet and the students went through after inspection of their documents and bags. It seems that the problems were caused by the opening of the school year last week and it took time until the soldiers understood that these students needed to get to ‘Azzun ‘Atma. There are about 60 of them. On the other hand, after we arrived it seemed that the soldiers would improve the inspections, but then they started to race along the fence and the gate closed again. After they returned, empty-handed (not clear why they ran, but a rumor says that settlers reported that they had seen people in their orchards beyond the checkpoint and thus they activated the soldiers ) the checkpoint still did not open and the soldiers could be seen sitting at their ease. Our phone calls to the DCO and the office caused the gates
to open again after 15 minutes. The EAPPI who were there said that today, since 06:00 the gate had closed 4 times, each time for about 10 minutes, seemingly for the same reasons.
We continued to Habla for a short visit; naturally, the gate was closed at this hour and the solar pump was still operating and had not been replaced by the electric one!
