Atara 15/6/2004 Watchers: Norah O., Lital Y., Efrat S., Roni H. (reporting) Atara is one of those evil checkpoints, where you can see with your own eyes that the real intent of the army is not security, but control over the population. The checkpoint is situated north of Ramallah (after Surda!) at the entrance to Atara and on the way to the West Bank. It is located on the top of a hill, and the cars from both sides have to climb steep roads. The one on the West Bank side is not even paved, with many big potholes and sand, and very difficult to pass, particularly for heavy, long trucks, that get constantly stuck (there is a basic disagreement between Israelis and Palestinians as to who is responsible for rebuilding the road and who is delaying it). It is a real bottleneck, and since it is a very frequented road, the traffic jams are enormous and the chaos is beyond description! Very soon we saw at the bottom of the hill a well paved road, which connects the southern and the northern roads in the valley and would make the climbing unnecessary and the traffic flow!! But this stretch of road was blocked on its two sides! The army obviously prefers the population to go through great difficulties and to control it under these unfavorable conditions for the civilians.Four rather hostile soldiers seemed to do random checks, but their targetswere exclusively transits that transported day laborers from various West Bank villages to Ramallah and back home. These laborers have begun their day at 4 o’clock in the morning, and when the first two transits were stopped at the roadside at 17:00, they were dead tired and more than12 hours out of home. All passengers (usually 9 + a driver) have to hand in their IDs and stay inside the car in the hot sun and wait there. Every now and then, we reminded the soldiers to speed up the checking but this was done at their base and so they could disclaim responsibility. In the meantime, more and more transits were stopped and more and more IDs collected. When the soldiers wanted to receive also the phone numbers of the laborers, we called the DCO and the army hotline and heard that there was no justification for this demand. At 19:00 the IDs of the first transit were returned, except for the driver and for three others’, but no one could leave before the driver was released. We made some angry calls to the hotline and after a couple of minutes everybody of the first transit was finally released. When we left at 19:15, more transits were detained and later in the evening we got a phone call from a local driver and heard that some of them were released only after 21:00! This is targeted harassment of the most disadvantaged social class — the day laborers.Many drivers complained about repeated closings of the checkpoint for several hours (in the morning and at night). We asked the soldiers, and theyconfirmed that there were several hot security alerts in the last days. Truck drivers of vehicles with yellow car plates were not let through and had to return to Bir Zeit (just imagine them U-turning at this narrow and steep road). The argument was that the army is not equipped there for truck checking and that these cars could get afterwards unhindered to Israel.It is of great importance that we make an appearance at Atara from time totime. We will complain about the blocking of the road, which could have eased the traffic situation there. Appendix of Roni H., 16/6/2004 Yesterday, 15.6.04, at Atara, a taxi driver friend from Qalandiya asked us to do something about the unpaved road, which causes so many traffic jams. There is a basic disagreement between Israelis and Palestinians about who is supposed to repair the road. Our friend even offered to do the work himself, if the army would only give its consent. One of the soldiers overheard our conversation, interfered and challenged the driver that if he wanted to do the work by himself, the soldiers will only welcome it. Our friend took the soldier at his word, and returned at 10 o’clock in the night with three more man and a tractor. They worked for several hours, filled and leveled the potholes, rolled out the road and made it, literally overnight, passable! Our Wednesday team could not quite understand what we were complaining about yesterday! Within the overall absurdity of the occupation, this is a small but very gratifying anecdote of civilians’ initiative and of solidarity! Our friend was overjoyed with the results of his enterprise! He did not aim to be in the right, he just was clever.