Irtah-Jubara-roadblock-Anabta, Monday AM, March 20, 2006Watchers: Ruhama S., Rachel E. (reporting)Irtah6:40 – Closure in effect [i.e., blanket restriction on passage, regardless of permits]. Not a soul around.Jubara7:00 – the square is empty. There are few people from the direction of Tulkarm. It is possible to cross only to Jubara. We are allowed entrance to the village only after ID inspection.Roadblock en route7:15 – we passed through the Schoolchildren’s Gate to the tunnel roadblock. There’s no passage from the Tulkarm district southwards, aside from humanitarian [medical and other special needs] cases, doctors and judges. Dozens of people try out their luck. Even though none of them stands a chance, the soldier summons them one by one and prevents them from crossing. Arriving vehicles are sent back. A huge truck with cattle feed, a minibus with a Tulkarm women basketball team, teachers, laborers, merchants. Some stick around for a long time, hoping that something might change. They ask us to stay with them because if we leave the soldiers will “go wild” (i.e. launch tear gas grenades). There’s much frustration and anger over the disruption of life, a disruption that has no explanation other than the apparent fact that “someone” with power decided to impair daily routine to the point of destruction and hopelessness. A phone call to Haliva [the liaison contact with the IDF] connects us to a clear voice on the other side that says: “That’s the situation. Do you want to talk about sorrow? That’s a discussion for another time. Do you have anything more to the point? That’s the situation.” As if the “situation” occurred on its own, and wasn’t determined by some Haliva. We stayed on with the laborers, teachers, and merchants, ate with them khubeiza [a seasonal wild plant whose leaves are a popular folk dish] and “woman’s finger” (it sounds different in Arabic) from the fields, until they decided to go back home.The Schoolchildren’s Gate was closed, so we made our way on the gravel road toward Jubara, and from there to Anabta. Anabta9:10 – exit from Tulkarm by vehicle is forbidden. Pedestrians over 40 years of age are allowed to exit. Entrance is permitted to everyone. The taxi drivers tell of another checkpoint deeper in, which produces more disruptions. A., a cab driver who is by now a friend, makes the ultimate speech of desperation, voicing the others’ despair, until they themselves find it hard to listen to him and they hush him up. “You built a wall, sit behind it and let us live.”Traffic is thin and well regulated.