Huwwara, Zaatara, Beit Furk 5-6-06 a.m.Observers: Annelien K, Miki F. (reporting), 2 guests from Holland: Peter and Jetty.A day for our guests to taste the “delicacies” of the occupation in the area.07:20 Barkan – From afar we see people crossing the mounds of earth in both directions. Taxi’s are waiting on both sides. There is no army.07:35 Marda – At the western gate a military humvee and five soldiers. A car desiring to leave Marda is detained.Also a taxi coming from Hares (from the west) holding teachers, bankers and others on their way to Ramallah is detained. The soldiers tell us that the detention is a punishment for the village because yesterday night people set fire to tires on the main road. As far as the car from Marda is concerned, they say that it has to go back and pass through the eastern gate. As for the taxi – they received a ‘hot’ warning from the police. The soldiers are courteous but that does not make life any easier for those under occupation. A telephone call to the Army desk.After quarter of an hour the soldiers allowed the car to pass through this gate and to return the ID’s to the passengers of the ‘dangerous’ taxi and allowed them to travel to their destination which is the checkpoint of Zaatara. The humvee left.07:50 Marda east – here we have a real checkpoint. 7 soldiers and 2 humvee’s guard the entrance and let the people who leave the village and taxi’s pass after examining their ID’s. One taxi and a private car have already been waiting for about half an hour. They are released after 10 minutes. Here also the soldiers are courteous and it is clear that they are not happy with this job, but as said before this does not lighten the burden of life under occupation. As to our question of the officer why so many soldiers and so many vehicles are necessary at the same time that cutbacks and lack of manpower are apparent at other places, he answered : this is a show of strength (to be expected!)08:30 Zaatara crossroads – the segregation is rescinded. All pass relatively rapidly but the orders have been changed: a thorough examination from the direction north (Nablus) – 3 lanes are open – 2 for simple Palestinians – the passage is relatively fast, 40 seconds up to one minute per vehicle. The third lane is for humanitarian travel (including transport of medicine) and VIP’s, amongst them high functionaries of the Ministry of Education (the corruption of power is not different between occupier and occupied).A Palestinian from Beit Dag’an is traveling in a car with people from Taibe. On their way to Qalqiliya. The man has permits to travel all over the West-Bank. The soldier refuses to let him pass and does not refer back to the DCO. The Palestinian calls the DCO and yells at the soldiers that he contributes to the settlements more than they do. The soldier explain to him that he cannot let him pass because these are his orders. A check with the desk shows that they know already in the DCO and the matter is being taken care of. The Palestinian is allowed to pass after half an hour, not without having to undergo ‘education’ from the soldier, who announces that only this time he allows him to pass.From the east – only one post. Here 15 cars are in line, amongst them a bus and all are waiting because of the few soldiers and the long time of examination of ID’s of car after car. In the large parking area many cars with yellow license plates and many officers with the rank of lieutenant up to colonel. They all stand around maps and explain about the planning of the place in another one and a half year. All we managed to catch is that all over the place pillboxes will be erected. Maybe they will enlarge Zaatara and waste more public money by building another passage gate between the north and the south of the West-Bank. All this in the framework of long-range planning to deepen the occupation and intensifying limitation of movement. The assistant commander of the batallion joins them at a certain stage and all set out on a tour of the area in “Oz and Azuz”. We tried to ask in the framework of short term planning that soldiers are added to the examination booths at the west side. His answer, that he will deal with it and take care of the problem “kalam fadi” and in english – “he wrote it on ice…”)09:30 Beita – we contacted M., an inhabitant of Beita, in order to inquire about the situation in the village. At the moment there are no ‘straw widows’. He invited us to a cup of coffee at his house. Since there was no time, we made do with a short visit, which was royal enough in the shop where his wife works. An opportunity for our guests to see and enjoy other things – conversation about life, family and about hope for better days after the occupation.10:30 Yizhar junction – the checkpoint has moved from east in the direction of Gitt – 2 soldiers. No waiting vehicles at all.10:55 Beit Furik – dead time. 5 pedestrians pass the checkpoint quickly. So do the trucks. The soldiers tell us that orders are not to let inhabitants of Jenin, Tulkarem and Nablus pass into Beit Furik, for those in the age group 15 – 30. An inquiry with the desk about this strange order, since the segregation has already been canceled and only in the far-away Beit Furik they have not heard about it.Only after 2 hours A. from the desk, a conference call to the DCO that there is no such order and they will make sure that this is conveyed to the unit on site. We have to follow this up.A taxi with its driver who requests to pass his vehicle-test in Nablus. We pass this request on to the desk.At 13:30 -we are notified from the desk that he is allowed to pass to Nablus. He indeed passes with his taxi, but he is forced to leave it at the checkpoint because by now the testing facility is already closed. (The next day he tries to return the taxi and again he has to go through a string of suffering during two hours until the soldiers get the order from the DCO, which is transferred through us to the desk, which allowed him to return to Beit Furik).A woman complains about the expense of the travel of her daughters to Nablus – they need three taxi’s to the checkpoint at Beit Furik – from the checkpoint to the center of Nablus and from there to the university, at the inclusive price of 10 shekels and alltogether in two directions, they shell out 20 shekels per day. According to the drivers in Beit Furik, if they were allowed to continue directly to the university, it would cost only 5 shekels. But the cars are prevented from passing directly these last two and a half months, except a two week suspension.At 11:20 -changing of the guard. The humvee departs while playing loud rock music.11:30 Awarta – The Palestinians there complain that the turnover of business is declining. Only a few Israeli vehicles come to get merchandise. Whatever is transferred is food and gasoline.11:50 Huwwara – few pedestrians and cars at the checkpoint. From time to time a line is opened for men and women. The army has arranged a tour for women from England at the checkpoint and an explanation is given for the need of the checkpoints. These Jews don’t even look at the lines. The explanation of security suffices. One of the English Jews explains to us that also the Jews are entitled to human rights and that is why the checkpoints are necessary. Apparently they did not hear about human rights for Palestinians – because each of the Palestinians is a potential terrorist. The tourists are accompanied by a heavy guard of military policemen who don’t even bother to look and see that in the meantime a line of 5 cars has formed at the entrance. “Not so terrible’ one of the policemen answers ‘they can wait until we finish the tour’. M. opens the gate and lets the cars enter.Two detainees, one in a small cell. He is from the village of Rogeib, and A. who sits in the DCO-jeep inquires and says that he is wanted. I take his data and T. tries to drive me away from the cell, while insisting that even taking down his particulars is endangering the security of the state of Israel since we don’t know what this man is capable of. T. Announces that he does not stand far from our opinions, but holds that our way is assisting the terrorists. I answered him that every person has the right to announce to his family that he has been arrested, and that the IDF does not announce immediately about the arrest of persons and their relatives look for them for many days and I added that even rapists and murderers have human rights. In 20 minutes the ‘terrorist’ is released but T. is still convinced that his attitude is right and that security overrides human rights. And how to expect otherwise if a judge from the supreme court Michael Cheshin proclaims similar opinions.In the pen a young man from Hebron who claims that he erred and entered Nablus in a roundabout way. M. says that he tried to leave Nablus without examination. This young man, AA, had a telephone and we did not expect him to be arrested. We called the afternoon shift, asking them to follow this man case, and it transpired according to A. from the military police that he was taken for interrogation by the general security service. I reported his personalia to the desk for the defense of the individual in order to find out where he was held. Until this day they did not get back to me ….13:00 -A visit to Ein Abus at the house of Maher and his family who was badly beaten 2 weeks ago by soldiers at the Zaatara junction and taken to Beilinson Hospital. He was released through the lawyer Tagrid Shebtya but is due to be judged because of attacking a soldier. We brought him the photo’s from Beilinson hospital. We got his declaration of the incident and apparently a letter will be sent to the Army Advocate.14:30 -from the Trans-Shomron road on our way back we see, some 300 meter before the gate, 10 persons who are staying illegally in Israel, with 3 soldiers. We stop to inquire what is going on. They have been detained already for half an hour. We report to the desk and in parallel we talk to brigade commander Haliva (in coordination with Elisheva and Tami). He explains that these things occur daily and in the end a bus will come by and get them to their homes. He assures us that he will see to it.We continue to maintain contact with the Palestinians from our home, and they, it appears, were taken to a spot further removed in the mountains. They were not given water and the outside temperature is over 38 degrees . Among the detainees there is a person who needs medicine.16:15 -Another phone call to the brigade commander Ephraim who calls me back after quarter of an hour and tells me that he gave orders to bring them water and to release them. He requests to be informed if they are not set free within half an hour. In conversation with the Palestinians it turns out that they received only the water, but were not released. Call to the commander who investigates again and is informed that there are no detainees in his area of command, and requests that I ask again. I call again.The Palestinians are told that of this moment they are free and they return home on foot. They got a taxi on the way.End of our activities for the day – but not of the occupation and its sorrows ….