Tapuach Junction, Huwwara, Jabara. 8 July 2005 Watchers: Esti T., Ofra T., Nili F. (reporting)Guests: Yisrael and Itai8:15 a.m.On the road to Marda we come across a snap roadblock. A Hammer jeep, with its engine running, blocks the road and prevents anyone entering the village. A taxi which is not allowed in leaves. According to the officer no one is allowed into the village because a ‘minor encounter’ is taking place. His flak jacket has a large slogan “the rhinos”, how fitting and how insensitive. The brigade is from the Tulkarm area. The officer adds that they have been there since the morning and will be there for another four hours.They do not allow us to enter the village.Esti phones Kamil at the Brigade and gets no answer.Tapuach Junction8:35 a.m.A soldier takes coffee on a tray to the checkpoint. There is a queue of some forty vehicles moving slowly from Nablus. There is a gap of about fifty metres between the soldiers who are carrying out the checks and the queue. The cars are motioned forward by a hand signal from the soldier who carries out the checks. According to the soldiers, there are very few personnel and that’s why only two are checking and one is at the post.A bus which left Nablus at 7:00 a.m. on its way to Jericho, crossed the roadblock at Huwwara and has been waiting an hour at the junction.We find out from the drivers that they have been waiting for an hour.A taxi driver, whose destination is Jericho, and who has been waiting here for an hour having already crossed the Huwwara roadblock asks: “Perhaps they are not interested in peace?”Taxis jam-packed with passengers wait in the unbearable heat.A driver who has come from Jenin has already crossed three roadblocks before this one. It is taking him four hours to reach Ramallah.Settlers pass in a flash.A taxi carrying three doctors on their way to the hospital ask us to talk the soldier doing the check into checking them first.The soldier agrees but ‘so that we don’t get excited’ takes some time to send a soldier to check the passengers who then go on their way.A Palestinian who neglected to bring his documents with him is taken off a lorry carrying fruit and it continues without him.The officer: “I’m very sorry, bring your documents next time”. We must point out that the lorry is not even going into Israel.The vehicles are not checked, only the passengers’ documents.Suddenly a queue of about ten cars is waiting at the northern end of the roadblock, mainly taxis. A border police jeep does not allow the traffic through. For a time the border policemen do not even get out of their jeep. The vehicles are not checked they simply stand and wait.When Esti asks why the border police and not soldiers are there, she receives the answer: “Because of a lack of personnel”.And again, at a signal from the soldier, the vehicles move on.A taxi driver gets out of his vehicle, approaches the jeep and offers his documents. The border policeman, without checking, without touching the documents at all tells, him to “go, go”. And again private cars are allowed to cross, taxis are stopped for a while.One of the drivers informs us that at Jit Junction the soldiers made Palestinians lie down on the road.9:15 a.m. When we leave the junction there are about 8 vehicles in the queue in the direction from Nablus.Huwwara North.Very few people are crossing the roadblock. In spite of this each one of them goes through the turnstiles. The soldiers carrying out the checks stand between the turnstiles.The roadblock officer attends carefully to the explanation given to the guests, and when they end he asks to say something and tells them about two friends of his who were killed in a terror attack on a bus and that he has discovered explosives at the roadblock. Everything that, in his eyes, justifies the kind of work he is doing.10:15 a.m. At Anbata the junction is clear, Jit Junction is also clear.Jubarra Roadblock10:30 a.m.There is a queue of cars from the direction of Tulkarm.We entered the village which is ringed by a fence, it appears to be deserted.At the roadblock by the entrance to the village there are two young boys, from Irtah, aged about fourteen, in the lock-up. Beside the cell there are another two youngsters. One of them says that his wife has given birth.A soldier comes up to us and says: “I can’t believe that you are taken in by their nonsense. One of them came and told us that he is going to visit his mother. I asked him to show me his I.D. card and he can go and see his mother. Then he said leave it, it doesn’t matter and went back”.He then got angry with us: “You are messing things up, up to now it was all O.K.”. The soldier telephoned from his post and complained about us.10:50 a.m.The soldier returned their parcels to the youngsters and let them go back where they came from. The detention was to deter them from coming back.A volunteer woman soldier allows a Palestinian to fill a bottle with water to give to the youngsters so that they can go home.The boy who said that his wife had given birth appears to have arrived from Tira and he is not allowed to return to Beit Furiq even though he has a magnetic card which was taken away by the soldiers. The soldiers said that he was not allowed to cross from here, only via Irtah, but he wants to take the short cut.Another youngster is held. According to him his permit is out of date and has not yet been renewed. “I have got five children, I am clean”. Esti talks to the Operations room of Tulkarm via a number given by Kamil who is on leave.A soldier who has just arrived rebukes the three young detainees: “Go and sort out your permit” and she returns their documents to them.11:00 a.m.We leave Jubarra.