Azun, A-Ras, Jubara, Anabta, Qalqiliya, Thursday PM, 27 April 2006, 14:20 –19:00Watchers: Aliza M., Rachel G (guest 2nd week), Hagar L (reporting)Guest: Rachel G. (second week)Movement and Transit RestrictionsCheckpoint on Route 574 between Azun and Jayyus –anyone who comes may pass, according to the soldiers “for check only.”Earthen obstacle on the road from Kfar Sur to Beit Lid – passengers come by taxi to the obstacle, cross it somehow and order by telephone a taxi from Beit Lid. We did not see taxis waiting. About 20 metres from the earthwork, in the direction of Beit Lid, the army has destroyed the road and dug a pit to block vehicular traffic on a bypass path through an olive grove. Before the block the road served a lot of people from the south of the West Bank and Qalqiliya who wanted to save themselves the checkpoints at Huwwara (Yizhar) and Jit. The army raised another earth obstacle on the dirt path that comes up from Kfar Sur (next to the gas station) towards Beit Lid.A-Ras Checkpoint – males aged 16-30 cannot pass south from Jenin and Tulkarm Districts. Women do pass. Vehicles can go through if the drivers are not in the prohibited age group. Residents of Nablus can pass. There is no restriction on passage of vehicles in the direction of Tulkarm, except for Israelis. The checkpoint is open 24 hours a day (so we were told, though it is difficult to believe).Anabta Checkpoint – males aged 16-30 from Tulkarm and Jenin districts are prohibited from exiting Tulkarm southward, apart from: doctors, humanitarian workers and students. There is no restriction on entry or exit from Tulkarm for residents of Nablus as long as they are on foot.Exit of vehicles is permitted only for those who have red documentation (humanitarian, ambulances, doctors, medicines, etc.), or vehicles from Shufa, Safarin and Beit Lid. Commodities can be brought out at the discretion of the checkpoint commander (“if I can examine them”). Humanitarian cargoes such as baby food, milk, medicaments, etc., are usually documented in red, according to the commander. Exit of vehicles from more southern areas (Ramallah for example) is blocked. The checkpoint is open until 23:00. If a humanitarian vehicle arrives after that hour, the checkpoint commander has to get approval from his command post in order to pass it.Detail by hours14:20 – we descend from Route 55 towards Qalqiliya in order to check whether there is a checkpoint at the exit from the town. Pedestrians that we meet say there is no checkpoint.14:40 – checkpoint on Route 574 between Azun and Jayyus, manned by reservists. The checkpoint belongs to Qalqiliya District Brigade and has no connection with the checkpoints of Ephraim Brigade (A-Ras, Anabta) or those of Shomron Brigade (Beit Iba, Jit). It appears that this is the reason why it exists, otherwise it is difficult to understand even in the normally illogical reality why there should be an even more illogical checkpoint here. At least they are not blocking movement, but only routine checks, according to the soldiers. The have no lists of wanted men, but when something seems suspicious, they check with their command post.We enter Jayyus with the intention of going down to the Agricultural Gate, but we don’t succeed in finding the way, so we give up.Further along the road we see a bulldozer pulling up rocks, and we stop to ascertain whether the army is carrying out the positioning of more obstacles on the dirt path. Happily we discover that the (Palestinian) bulldozer is preparing holes for lampposts to be installed on this winding road where even daylight is hazardous for traffic.15:10 – by the earthworks obstacle at the turn to Beit Lid, a work conference of engineers and the contractor is under way – this so they shouldn’t have to waste time travelling through a lot of checkpoints. Very creative solution. Three youngsters who have come from Ramallah are waiting for a taxi to come and take them to Beit Lid. We are taken by the contractor to see the pit that the army has “installed” in the middle of the road to block the dirt path that people had created in order to bypass the earth obstacle. What happens if someone walks here in the dark – seems that doesn’t bother the army. It’s also completely clear that when (one day, inshallah) they remove the block, the pit will remain.15:30 – at Kfar Sur, near the (excellent) falafel stand, we hear of additional blocks: on the slope of the dirt road by which it was possible to get to Beit Lid. In addition the owner of the restaurant informs us that in the evenings and at night there are checkpoints at the road junction in the centre of the village.15:55 – A-Ras Checkpoint. Week by week the checkpoint [that started as a mobile roadblock] takes on more of the form of permanency. Only the number of soldiers doesn’t change, so neither does the waiting time in line.16:10 – 54 cars in the line from the direction of Tulkarm – many trucks and buses. Clearly this is the season of annual school outings in the West Bank. Since they can’t travel to Jerusalem or the sea (for instance, Gaza), they tour the nearby areas. We see two schools that are returning from a trip to Tulkarm. A school principal from Ramallah greets us as old acquaintances – we met him in the same circumstances last week (when we tried to help him pass faster, without success: this time we encounter his three buses already at the checking station).We timed a car, but it belonged to a VIP who bypassed the line, and thereby reached the head of the line “already” after 45 minutes. Another car (number 53 in line) got there after 55 minutes! Despite the transit restrictions of which we had heard, not one pedestrian, passenger or car was sent back. Seems that the regulations are enforced at the discretion of the commander.17:00 – an Israeli lawyer who is dealing for an insurance company with the claim of an agricultural labourer from Tulkarm who had an accident and is now disabled, wants to go to Tulkarm, but is blocked by the commander. Finally, the checkpoint commander relents and lets him through.17:15 – we leave by one of the Tulkarm roads to ascend to the Jubara Checkpoint. On the way we count 46 cars waiting in line from the north. From the south there were very few cars while we were there. The state of the road is a scandal. This is Area C which Israel is supposed to be maintaining.When we go up to Jubara Checkpoint, we see perhaps six youngsters in the holding pen. We didn’t stop because there was another shift at Jubara that day. When we returned later, at 18:15 approximately, we could no longer see them. While passing through the checkpoint we heard the commander explaining to a driver that Palestinian vehicles are not allowed to travel on Route 57, not even to Shufa.17:40 – Anabta Checkpoint: six cars in the entry to Tulkarm, pass almost without inspection. There are no cars in the exit line and few pedestrians. An Israeli car, whose driver wanted to visit his mother in a village north of Tulkarm, is not allowed to pass. A little later we see a few Israeli cars entering. According to the soldiers the pressure of outbound cars was earlier. It is not clear to us what pressure they mean since very few cars are permitted to leave Tulkarm via this checkpoint: humanitarian and red documented, plus cars from Safarin, Shufa and Beit Lid. Even vehicles from the south of the West Bank are not allowed to come out. There are taxis waiting on both sides of the checkpoint. At 18:05 we leave.18:30 – Qalqiliya Checkpoint: transit point to Israel. We checked how to get there.The road from here also goes up to Zofim. We drove up there on a wonderful road – not very short and apparently built in order to allow the settlers feel as though they are not living in the Occupied Territories. On their way home to their well manicured homes on the top of a hill from which they have a magnificent view, they don’t see a single Palestinian. They could go home on Route 55, but there they would have to travel 200 metres together with vehicles coming from Qalqiliya. And because of those 200 metres, a new road some kilometres in length was built for them. At the peak of the hill we look down on Jayyus and see the newer houses of Zofim, “planted” in olive groves, presumably of Jayyus. Below Zofim, the fields of Jayyus and Jamal spread out: most of the lands of the two villages are on the west side of the fence.We return to Route 55, pass a checkpoint below the settlement, manned by a few soldiers whose duty is apparently to prevent farmers reaching their lands and leftwing activists who want to assess the theft from Jayyus.