checkpoint ya`abed open to traffic
The North, 26.08.2021
15:20 – Tura-Shaked Checkpoint
There is little traffic in either direction. Amidst the usual filth, we saw a shiny Yale lock. We didn’t find the key . . . a symbol?
On our way to the Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint, we stopped at the minimarket of our friend, F. Her young daughter sat beside her, behind the counter. We bought (a charger for the car, NIS 15), we drank (a bottle of soda for NIS 3) and we conversed a bit, although limited by language.
On the way, above one pillbox, a white balloon was flying. An innocent balloon or perhaps a communication and/or photograph balloon? At the bottom of the second pillbox, behind the cement blockade, two soldiers sat with their rifles pointed at the cars that passed on the road.
16:20 – Ya’bed-Dotan Checkpoint
The checkpoint itself isn’t staffed and the vehicle traffic streamed in two directions.
16:40 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, the Palestinian Side
Many people are returning from work in Israel and the Seamline Zone, but the parking lot is still full of cars. Among those returning--all men--a young woman stood out, bareheaded and wearing a mask. Her partner is waiting for her in a car.
The red buffet car is improving. In front of it they installed a large shed and concrete flooring covers the artificial green grass. The nut seller is also stationed at the shed. Others wait at the entrance of the transit shed (for transportation or for passengers). One of the workers asks for help with dismissing his prohibition, and we give him Sylvia’s note. We wonder why he doesn’t cross at one of the breaches in the Separation Fence. Perhaps he observes the law and perhaps he is a bit old, and the traffic is heavy.
17:00 – Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint, the Seamline Zone side
One man spread out a rug on a mat and prays in the large shed next to the parking lot. The others hurry to go down the long sleeve
(the enclosed, roofed passage to and from the terminal) on their way home in the West Bank. We walk with the stream of people, among them, only two women, an older woman who greets us cordially and a young woman with a baby. Most of the people are young. A few stop to buy rugalach for the weekend at the settler’s buffet. Obviously, there are no rugalach at the buffet car on the Palestinian side.
17:20 – On our way home we crawl in a convoy of cars that are returning to Israel after they transport Palestinian workers to the checkpoint.