Huwwara Beit Furik Awarta Za’tara, Wednesday 26.7.2006 PMObservers: Yehudiet L. Hagar L. (reporting)Natanya translating. The war in Lebanon and especially the 9 soldiers killed at Bint-Jebal today echoed in the conduct of the army as a force occupying the occupied territories. Limitations of movement. 1.In the entire area of Shomron the checkpoints work to the recipe of “checking in depth”, that is cars are given passage very slowly and sometimes the traffic is completely stopped. At the crossroads of Burin there is a traffic jam which has continued for hours. Taxis, trucks, settlers and all sorts of military vehicles are stuck between two checkpoints. The one on road 60 to the south, at the side of the village of Hawarra, the second going up to road 60 above the crossroads in a westerly direction. The jam started in the afternoon and has continued for many hours. We also were stuck there from 19.00 – 19.35. Palestinian cars back up because of the way, the Israelis press forward. As we come out of the jam we hear the commander calling for a ‘stoppage of life’. Now the Palestinian cars stand officially without any possibility of passing the crossroads. We left there in frustration and desperation. We could not stay because there was no place to leave the car and the soldiers did not allow anyone to get out of the cars. They seemed most alarmed at the traffic jam. A settler who passed our car cursed us and banged on the car.2. At the crossroads of Hawarra the commander would give no information about the limitations but we know about the segregation of young men from Nablus and the surrounding villages.3. At the checkpint of Beit Furik.The residents of Azmut, Dir el Hatab, Salem, Beit Dejan and Beit Furik can enter Nablus.Residents of Nablus 18-25 are not allowed to pass. Residents of Tulkarm 15-35 years of age cannot pass.Residents of Jenin …no one is allowed into or out of Nablus.Residents of the Jordan valley. No one is allowed to enter or pass into Nablus from this checkpoint.Car owners. residents of Beit Dejan and Beit Furik can enter Nablus without a permit. Anyone else needs one. (Taxis, people whose cars are driven by residents of Beit Furik or Beit Dejan.4. The road from east Hawarra. Palestinian traffic not allowed, not cars and not pedestrians. Trucks which traveled on the road to the back to back checkpoint or to Beit Furik …the drivers have been arrested.There is no sign on the road forbidding traffic of Palestinians. (Why does the Association for Civil Rights in Israel do something about it? If the army has decided not to allow Palestinians on the road they should put up a sign announcing this. If there is such a sign it will be possible to complain against Israel.)People from Awarta and Odela who passed from Nablus to the village of Kalil next to the back to back checkpoint (slipping through according to army language) are detained for two hours. Details according to times.14.00 Crossroads of Za’tara. Traffic flows , about 10 cars from the north. On the way to Za’tara we received a traffic ticket because we passed over a white line ( the report is a lie). The car was a concealed police carbut we were scared to stop in case those were settlers.14.30 The crossroads of Burin (Yizhar) – 53 cars waiting from north to west. The checking very slow.14.35 The checkpoint of Hawarra. The car park is full of taxis and there is a strong flow of pedestrians.At the checkpoint itself there are about 200 people and the line moves very slowly. 2 checking posts and another line of older men and women which is open most of the time. At the posts the checking is more pedantic and humiliating than usual. Upper clothing has to be lifted practically to the shoulders, trouser legs lifted to the knees, a full circle standing in place. In the ordinary line the wait is about an hour and in the humanitarian 30 minutes. 8 cars waiting to leave Nablus. A young man is returned to the head of the line by the commander. Most of those passing are students returning at the end of the week from their studies. We speak to some who are studying IT.Checking of passengers in cars include: Baggage is checked on the ground (there is nn x-ray machine). A body check such as is done in the ordinary line. Lifting of shirts and trousers and checking of ids. In the closed cell at the side if a detainee. I peep in and see that he is blindfolded and surmise that he was brought there that way. He does not reply to my question either because he does not understand Hebrew or is frightened. Although I have no details about him and do not know when he was detained I inform the humanitarian center of the army.15 35. -the detainee is freed. The enclosure has become a waiting room for the women who are waiting for family members in the ordinary line.15.40 -8 cars in the line leaving Nablus and none entering. About 250 people at the checkpoint. Those waiting in the enclosure are packed together and the line already flows out of the enclosure.16.15 -Miki phoned us to say that there had been a complete closing down of the checkpoint at the crossroads of Burin (Yizhar). We went to see and saw that there was a complete traffic jam. A long line from all three sides, We cannot approach the checking posts. But we saw that cars were being passed but very slowly and that the jam was caused by Israeli vehicles (settlers, army and others) who were bypassing the line in the opposite direction. Pedestrians who had already stood for an hour in line at Hawarra, traveled half a kilometer and were stuck at this checkpoint for many hours.16.35 -We turned and drove to Beit Furik. We phoned the centre to inform them of the traffic jam. The centre said that they knew of this and that the whole area was under ‘stoppage of life’. In fact their report was even worse than what we had seen. The entire length of the road from the headquarters of the brigade until the back to back checkpoint at Awarta a barbed wire fence had been placed, evidently to block people preferring to pass without the checkpoint (slipping through in army language). 16.45 Checkpoint Beit Furik. Little movement of pedestrians or cars. Two older people detained. One is an older truck driver from Jericho who left his truck in the wholesale market of Beita, went through the checkpoint of Hawarra to Nablus and from there to Beit Furik to a wedding and now he wants to returns to Beita. (He has to go back through Nablus). The commander says that he forbid him to go through Nablus to Beit Furik (because of the ban on residents of the Jordan valley to go east of Nablus) but he managed to get through the checkpoint. Please note that the man went through for a few hours only to be at a celebration (people who went through with the bride or groom knew him). He has to get back to Beita to take his truck which is full of vegetables and fruit so as to get to Jericho through the permitted roads. The second is a building labourer who works at building a school at Beit Furik. His id is from Tubas he cannot pass east of Nablus. We informed the centre. The commander said that they would free him later. And when we got back to the checkpoint at about 18.00 they were no longer there.17.20 -When we left the checkpoint we saw in the ara ofhte cars a rolling checkpoint in the direction of Beit Furik which had been placed 150 metres from the permanent checkpoint. The ids of all the drivers are being checked through the communication and not according to lists. These people had just been checked at the permanent checkpoint. And now there are detainees. A husband and wife, the husband holding the baby. The soldiers asked for the ids which he showed them and spoke to them in Hebrew. Then he turned to his wife and spoke to her in Arabic. One of the soldiers demanded to know what he had said to her and he refused to tell him. The soldier who did not belong to the team of soldiers (according to his dress was a minor official) shouted at the Palestinian and pushed him. The Palestnian shouted back and there was almost a fist fight. The soldiers and especially the thin one who did not belong to the team demanded that he give the baby to his wife. We understood that this was so that they could handcuff him and he refused. We tried to calm things down and told the soldiers that what they were doing was forbidden. After his id had been taken to be checked and the soldiers had put the clerk in his place (maybe he was a settler…we do not know) he tried to show the Palestinians who “the man was here” and looked like a chicken who did not know his place. We leave and decided to come back later.17.40 Checkpoint back to back at Awarta. 12 detainees amongst them two drivers who had driven on the apartheid road from the checkpoint of Hawarra next to the camp of the brigade. One of them has two of his children with him, the others are people of the area who traveled on a; forbidden road according to the unwritten laws of the occupation, that is not through the checkpoint. We took their names and informed the centre and slowly they were freed.18.00 -The hour arrives to close the checkpoint and the soldiers let the last trucks through. At the front of the line a yellow truck is checked leaving Nablus. The commander and another soldier check it. The commander goes with the man around the truck and the other soldier opens the driver’s door . The commander tells the driver to go to the front of the truck and the next thing I see is: an object is thrown on the ground and the soldiers handcuff the driver. The soldiers claim that they found a bullet of a rifle in the seat of the driver. The commander has a soldier hold his pointed weapon at the head of the driver who is handcuffed. He does not say a word and does not try to argue with the soldiers or defend himself. His behavior shows that he knows that he has been set up. The object was a bullet, a very rusty one. I ask him for his personal details and phone his home to inform his family. He is confused but gives his details. At his home they do not understand Hebrew or English. Later when I ask one of the workers to phone they do not reply. I inform the centre of the incident and my feeling that it has been set up as a well known trick , a bullet being planted in a car by soldiers.18.30 -We return to Beit Iba where the elderly detainees have been released but the rolling checkpoint is still there. The detainees including the couple with the baby are no longer there. A truck which passed on the apartheid road is detained and the soldiers take the id of the driver and tell him to go to the permanent checkpint. We do not go on. The rolling checkpoint is freed.18.45 Back to checkpoint of Awarta. At the entrance to the residential area we are witnesses to the end of an incident where 12 children and young boys have been arrested and are being pushed by two soldiers. The pushing stops when the soldiers see us. (Later the commander says that one of the children tried to grab the soldier’s rifle). They tried to bypass the checkpoint at Hawarra. They are from the area of Nablus and the segregated areas but do not seem to be 18 years of age. We were told that they would be freed later. We think that the commander is trustworthy and will do as he says. We were too tired to take names and phone numbers and we were told that in continuation that the checkpoint of Burin was waiting for us and a telephone call from Jubara told us that over 100 pedestrians were being detained there…. People who had agricultural permits. The driver is now blindfolded and his hands blue from the handcuffs. We speak to the soldiers and demand that they release the handcuffs somewhat. (Photo attached). We pass the checkpoint of Hawarra where there are still many people but do not stop.19.05 Checkpoint of Burin (Yizhar) is jammed. The centre says that there is an alert and “a stoppage of life”. The soldiers walk between the cars and seemed alarmed and hopeless in this terrible jam. We see Zachariah and invite him to travel with us to Jit. The soldiers come to ask whom we have put in the car. The commander shouts at them “Do not speak to them.” I get out of the car for a second to see if this is a “stoppage of life” or a traffic jam. The soldier screams at me to get back into the car. “You see that no one is outside on foot.” (Only the settlers, one of whom passes our car, curses us and bangs on the car.). There is still a terrible jam. Army cars and police. Everyone stuck. Police from a special unit begin to sort things out. So we get through on our way to Jit. As we leave the checkpoint area “stoppage of life” is announced. We are not sure if we can travel or no, the threatening settler again reaches our car and now he is even more violent. I decide to get out of there as soon as possible.19.50 Checkpoint Jit on the eastern side…no cars. We see a bus which has been detained in an easterly direction evidently for ids to be checked. Many cars from the westerly direction (Tulkarm and Beit Iba) but no “stoppage of life” . We do not stop again.20.00 Azun. There is still a blockage at the checkpoint of cement blocks. The westerly exit from Azun to Qalqiliya has a blockage of dirt.