Za’atra, Huwwara, Beit Furiq 24 May 2006 Watchers: Ilana H., Nina S., Yael H., Chana A. (reporting)On the way to Huwwara we stop at the blockage near the Barkan industrial area.Road No. 4765, at the point close to the industrial area.7:45 a.m. The mounds of earth there show the permanence of the occupation and the blockades. Contrary to the ‘easing’ announced in the media, there are additional ID checks by a squad of soldiers backed up by a military vehicle. The checks take place in both directions.At the side of the road is a group of men waiting for their ID’s to be checked… a little while after we arrive they are allowed to continue on their way. A vehicle packed with fresh corn branches arrives from Jenin on its way to Ramallah; another vehicle is on its way to Salfit. Since people are not permitted to drive on ‘the king’s highway’ they are forced to drive through obstacles on their way to their goal. We did not see any vehicles turned back. At 8:15 a.m. we left.On our way back, at about 11:00 a.m., we did not see any soldiers in the area.Tapuach8:25 a.m. There are no cars at all from the west!!!According to the soldier: “It’s not worth your while to be here (i.e.: there will be no ’work’ for us, machsomwatch). I also work fast”.Everyone crosses, there are no limitations, no ‘separation’, but everyone has to be checked (and whoever shows up on the list, obviously…).However, within ten minutes a queue of 16 cars builds up. From the direction of Za’atra: there are no limitations from there either. People are taken off the bus and they are all checked.At 8:45 a.m. there were 50 cars from this direction.At Beita the mound of earth has been removed.Yitzhar Junction8:50 a.m. There are 20 cars, however, they are not checked and permitted to drive through. In the middle of the road a shed has been erected for the soldiers!!! The permanent snap roadblock has turned into a permanent roadblock?!Huwwara8:55 a.m. The x-ray machine is functioning. Across the roadblock, in the area we are not allowed into, where taxis and other cars park, we see a roll of barbed wire blocking the lane where ambulances used sometimes to be able bypass the queue of cars.There are two queues for checks and immediately a ‘humanitarian queue’ is opened too. In the right hand queue there is just a girl soldier who is seen raising a man’s shirt with her own hands while he stands with his back to her. In the left hand queue there are two soldiers.As per usual the elderly, disabled, mothers with babies in their arms are forced to walk all the way. One noticeable thing today is that women are ‘permitted’ to use the ‘humanitarian queue’. A woman with a baby in her arms, a woman after a miscarriage, are forced to wait for other members of their family who cross through the ‘normal’ queues. In the absence of a place to wait, they have to stand and today the sun is baking, it is very hot. Why cannot couples in this situation cross together?There are a number of women, residents of Nablus, two of them with babies in their arms. The brother of one of them is in the queue. He is ill and on his way to the hospital in Ramallah. He is not permitted to cross and thus we are made aware that Nablus residents aged between 15 and 30 are not permitted to leave the town. We alert A., the DCO representative who spends his time in the DCO vehicle and, on his recommendation, after he looks through the documents held by the young man, permits him to continue on his way. R., the roadblock commander, says that even if he leaves Huwwara, at Za’atra or on Road No. 147 he will not be allowed to continue. We asked them to inform Tapuach that he should be allowed through but ‘they have no means of communication’. We contacted the humanitarian centre and passed on the details of the young man and they said they would make contact.The girl soldier in the left hand checkpoint shouts a lot. She is aware of her surroundings and sensitive to orderly queuing. Who does she shout at? At the elderly men walking with sticks and at another man who is limping. What happened? They crossed via the humanitarian queue.At the checkpoint for cars entering a soldier educates a Palestinian who appeared in a television broadcast on Channel Ten, about the market in Beita. The man crossed the invisible line, known only to the soldier, in his car and didn’t heed the shout of the soldier to park in a specific place. The man is assertive, he demands that the soldier apologise and the soldier says: “I have no problem apologising, but I will explain why…”During our coffee break at the makeshift market set up on the ruins of the southern roadblock, traders tell us that yesterday at 6:30 p.m. soldiers came and tipped the stalls over. The flower grower says that they ruined stock in the amount of NIS500. The soldiers claimed that the traders were not allowed to be there.We left at 10:40 a.m.Beit Furiq (Nina and Ilana)9:45 – 10:15 a.m. The crossing is quiet. Those between the ages of 15 – 30 are not permitted to leave Nablus. According to the soldier, cars from Beit Furiq and from Beit Dejan can enter and leave Nablus. However, cars are parked at the side.According to the soldier, the roadblock was opened at 5:15 a.m. (they report the time of the opening to the brigade) and closes at 7:30 p.m., but people can cross until 8:00 p.m. After that only ‘humanitarian cases’ are allowed to cross.Yitzhar Junction10:45 a.m.There is no queue. Za’atra10:50 a.m. There are 39 cars and from the west about 10. 10:55 a.m.East of Zeita there is a military vehicle parked at the side of the road.