A tour of the Nablus and Tulkarm roadblocks, and everything in between, by people from Jerusalem, the North and the Tel Aviv area30 October 2006 .Guide: Dafna B. (reporting)We left very late due to a misunderstanding with our driver, Nadim, who took the shift instead of taking us. After getting his brother to take over the shift he came and picked us up at about 10:00 a.m.There is an impounded house at Mascha close by the separation fence: because the residents of the nearby settlement insisted that the eight metre wall would spoil their view, the fence was moved so that Mascha’s westernmost house was left on the Israeli side. In order to ensure the safety of us all, fences were erected around the house so that the whole family, including its small children, is imprisoned for a life sentence. However, the settlers of Elkana have a splendid view.Road 5 – Za’atraOn our way we saw the section which only Israelis are permitted to use, the parallel road (for Palestinians) to Borokin, blocked by heaps of earth, and the motorway quality of the Jewish road. Later we will drive along the road from Tulkarm to Dir Balut which is the main road from Tulkarm to Kalkilya and Ramallah for everyone who does not want, or is not permitted, to use Road 60 and see and feel for ourselves the disparity and the evil between the two.At Za’atra there are no cars from the west but, in comparison, we counted thirty eight cars from north to south.Huwwara roadblockMid-day and there are comparatively a lot of people. In any case about five women await their husbands, who are still in the queue, on the south side as well as an elderly couple. So what is the use of the humanitarian queue if, after crossing via it, one still has to wait for one’s partner?There is a middle-aged detainee. The roadblock commander, Shai, says he deceived him – he crossed via the humanitarian queue with a baby in his arms and afterwards he was seen passing it to someone. The man says that the baby is indeed not his daughter but his niece and he was helping his sister-in-law but, after they had crossed, he preferred to help her carry the heavy bags she had with her and, therefore, he returned the baby to her. Now he is undergoing an educational session as becomes the Israel Educational Army.As we did not want to crowd all ten of us into the roadblock, we went in three by three… the roadblock commander sets our limits by the turnstiles. He forbids us to see the cell and is very angry when I return there again and again with another trio of women. I ask him what he is ashamed of, as he is convinced that it should be so… of course he justifies the concealment of the horror, but I cannot remember now exactly what he said. He and we know very well that he is not comfortable with that terrible place. And so it should be…We took the apartheid road and stopped, without alighting, at Beit Furiq.There is a roadblock at Borin in the direction of Jit (east).At Jit Junction there are no soldiers in either direction.