Huwwara, Beit Furik, Za’atara Junction, Monday 27.3.06 PMObservers: Macky S., Merav A. (reporting)Translation: Hanna K.12:45 Marda. The gate is open and there is no military presence, but on the other side of the road, at the entrance to Zeita, there is a spike-blockade with a few soldiers. Five cars are waiting to enter the village and two others are waiting to leave it. The soldiers just stand there, do not check and do not allow anybody to pass. When we stop and approach them they suddenly begin to let the cars pass without even checking them at all. From a conversation with one of the soldiers it transpires that their sole aim is to show presence. Stones had been thrown on cars on the road (“people are being killed on the route” he says) and that’s why they are there. They do not prevent the entrance or enable selective entrance, but just show that they are there. They weren’t there any more when we passed there on our way back at 15:50.12:55 Za’atara Junction CP – six cars coming from the west are waiting to pass. The soldiers say that there are no special instructions regarding the forthcoming election day. The policy of segregation between the zones of the west bank is continuing. 15 cars coming from the north are waiting to pass. There are two checking posts, but the soldiers check the cars slowly, busy joking amongst themselves.13:00 – There is no military presence at the entrance to Beita, there is a military jeep inside the village of Huwwara, but there is no curfew, the shops are open as usual.The Huwwara Junction CP – 10 cars in the queue but they are being passed relatively quickly.13:10 -The goods CP at Awwarta – a truck driver reports that there was about one hour’s wait at the exit, we check the time it takes a truck at the entrance to Nablus to pass – it’s ten minutes. The soldiers don’t allow one truck to pass because it carries two passengers, besides the driver. One of the passengers leaves the truck and mounts another which will bring him to Huwwara, and the truck continues into Nablus.13:30 Beit Furik CP – the CP is entirely empty, the soldiers are unemployed.We are witness to the glory of the democratic process when just now a military jeep arrives with the equipment of the ballot box. The soldiers will vote this evening. They promise us that they will all vote for Baruch Marsel.At the gas station above the parking lot the watchman of the station turns to us and tells us that during then nights settlers arrived and destroyed the two vehicles which were in the parking lot – a truck and the private vehicle of the watchman himself. They broke the windows and the lights of the vehicle, tore out the radio and everything else they managed to destroy, and took the registration papers of the vehicles. In addition they also stole carts belonging to the peddlers of the market near the CP, on which there were three gas containers. We met the peddler who owns the carts, he was desparate, he has no money to buy new carts (150 shekel each). We took their details, photographed the damage that was caused to the vehicles and gave the material to “Yesh Din” for further treatment.14:30 Huwwara CP – the CP commander is second lieutenant R.The lane of those entering Nablus is fenced in and completely separated from that of those leaving Nablus. Also this arrangement is already in force two weeks, there are still people who are not sure where they have to pass, and who try to enter Nablus by way of the road as was the custom in the last months. They are stopped with shouts of “hallo hallo” and “ho, ho” and are directed by waving of hands to the entrance lane. There are a few tens of people in the queue, the women and elderly people’s queue advances relatively quickly. From time to time there is pressure and shouting from the young people’s queue.From the road from Beit Furik we saw that there were 13 cars in the queue leaving Nablus. We measured the time for one vehicle, it took one hour to pass.Two elderly men bypass the CP and leave Nablus by way of the entrance lane to Nablus. A valiant soldier immediately runs to catch them and they are taken to the CP. One of them is very agitated that this is the treatment he gets from children the age of his grandchildren. It seems that the intention is to detain them “for many long hours” as the soldiers declare in our ears, but in the end second Lieutenant R. takes them and returns them to the end of the queue.15:35 Huwwara Junction CP – 7 cars.15:45 Za’atara Junction CP – 35 cars coming from the north. The drivers report that they have been waiting for about an hour. At the CP there is a woman dog trainer and one of the vehicles is taken aside to be checked by the dog. As is the habit, the car’s passengers are asked to move away from the vehicle and to turn their back so that they should not be able to see the secret activities of the dog in the depths of the vehicle. The dog trainer demands that we too be banished from the site, and we continue.16:10 The entrance in Israel CP (Sha’ar Ephraim?) – there is a traffic jam, part of the cars are being checked carefully, probably in view of the elections. When the soldiers guarding the place asks the military policewoman why she checks part of the cars and the others not, she answers that she checks only those vehicles whose passenger have an oriental appearance “as ashkenazies cannot be Arabs” she sums up concisely the hierarchy of the racist policy of Israel.