Hawwara, Beit Furiq, Zawatra & Awwarta22.8.2005 AMObserving: Orna D. Ada H. & Yael l. (reporting)We went on our shift with Dafna’s warning looming over us, with a decision to be cautious and careful.Zeita Junction 6:40- On the main road and at the exit from the village temporary rolling roadblocks. We waited for 10 minuets to pass. It seems leaving the village is not permitted.Tapuach Junction,Za’atra 7:00- we drove through the junction without stopping. From the car we counted six vehicles waiting to cross the junction from the west and from Huwwara a long line of thirty cars and 20 pedestrians. There was also police presence in the junction and a policeman was standing with the soldiers in the checkpoint itself.During our routine drive through Huwwara village we noticed camouflage nets and Israeli flags on the top floors of some of the houses. We couldn’t recall seeing them before and it may be that IDF confiscated them recently.Beit Furik 7:15- an unusual number of people and cars are passing through the checkpoint. The cars were instructed to by the soldiers to wait in the nearby parking lot and each time only one car is aloud to approach the checking point. The pedestrians pass rather quickly but numerically each time a cab arrives it unloads a full human cargo, which is unusual for the checkpoint at this hour. Talking to the locals we discover two reasons for this mass. Since the roads surrounding Beit Iba are closed people from that area go way out of their way and enter Nebulas through Beit Furik. The main reason according to the passer byes is the presence of new soldiers who don’t know their job properly. The checkpoint was only opened at 06:30 and the soldiers attitude is humiliating and degrading, the drivers tell us. One of them informs us that the troubles started Friday when the mayor of Beir Furik tried to pass through the checkpoint. The soldiers prevented him from crossing and left him and his entourag drying in the sun for a long time. When one of the men (an elderly gentlemen) tried to argue with head of the checkpoint the officer claimed that he attacked him and filed a complaint against him. Ever since then there is great stress and tension.Actually, our impression of the checkpoint was of serenity and calmness. One of the she-soldiers is smoking a cigarette and her lovely friend is reading with great interest an old edition of Bliezer . The soldier who is securing the car-checker is simultaneously securing the ID checker. Not that all this matters because the in-operating computer system makes this whole process futile. But- the show must go on…..Awwarta 7:40- seven trucks wait heavily in the entrance line to this commercial checkpoint while across from them we see the eternal endless line of trucks wistfully waiting to go out into the big world beyond the checkpoint. We begin a conversation with the proletarian leader “mudir” A. He talks and around him stand his nodding entrouge. A. remembers the day this checkpoint was opened.- two years and a month ago. He has been the manager ever since. The drivers, the soldiers and the DCO all treat him as the man in charge. He is in charge of putting things in order and sees himself responsible for good communication between the sides with as little friction as possible. He admitted there are problems of selfishness with some of the drivers that are inconsiderate and block the road to cut in line. Soldiers, he says, there are these and there are those. Like everywhere else. When they are bad tempered he tries to calm them down. The y all used to get here at 10pM and sleep at the checkpoint for hope of passing the next afternoon. These days they get here at 4 AM and usually everyone makes it through. Shwaye Shwaye. Yesterday, he tells sadly, when the checkpoint was closed at 6 PM there were still four trucks that hadn’t passed through. He pleaded with the soldiers and even called the DCO but to no avail. Never mind. Ada reads out to A. phone numbers of her and other friend tht night help in a time of need. The whole entourage take out their cellphones and religiously punch in the numbers as well. Every digit counts.Hawwara 08:00- While Ada drives off to deliver medical supplies and medication to a diabetes patient in Huwwara we watch two soldiers charging calmly towards the bus stop, weapons drawn. On the way one shouts to the other “see, I told you it’s not an Arab, just a Jew”. Code red cancelled. They return to the checkpoint. The checkpoint is buzzing with people today. Maybe it’s because there is only one she-soldier checking the population leaving Nablus for long moments. The soldier next to her is busy randomly checking ID ‘s of those entering the city. His own initiative or new orders? We couldn’t find out for sure. The checkpoint commander I. (first leiutenet…) finds out for me how many cars are standing in the exit line (20) after a soldier from the army police kindly threatens to call the cops on me if I keep standing there. I tried not to be offended. Six vehicles are waiting in the opposite direction. I. grants us permission to go observe the queue from up close to prove his point that there is no way to form two separate lines for bus and private automobiles. He is correct. Even ambulances have to cut the line by going through the fields in a life-threatening manner. The road is simply two narrow. What are the chances the Palestinian authority will do some road work?As said, there are crowds through today. Three soldiers are positioned in the carousels. Two detainees await twenty minuets each and are released. Another detainee which stopped at the time of our arrival has his hands restricted after half an hour an we are told there is a good chance he will be arrested later on. He tells us that he is a Palestinian policemen and that this is the seven time he is detained at this checkpoint. He refuses to give us his name or telephone or even to take ours and he explains that he has already called his commanding officer who will in turn inform whoever needs to be informed.. Another detainee (a youngster of about 17 years) is stopped and not yet released at the time of our departure. In a rather surreal scene I. has an argument with two volunteers ( a Dane and a French woman) who refused to hand over their passports to be inspected closely.Za’atra 10:00- again we decide to settle for driving past. Eight vehicles await from the direction of Nablus. Soldiers say there are no special orders today. The junction is full of soldiers and command cars being given a briefing of some sort. The settlers stand in a separate group, keeping to themselves.10:10- At the exits from Marda and Zeita are temporary checkpoints. As far as we could tell cars (and maybe people too) are not aloud to leave their villages. SPONSORED LINKS