Za’atra, Huwwara, Beit Furiq, Awarta 10 July 2006 Watchers: Esti K., Tal S., Ada H. (reporting)Summary:There are few queues and the proceedings are organised at the Za’atra roadblocks, in both directions and at Beit Furiq. At Huwwara people stand in never ending queues, reaching far beyond the shed, for hours (according to them, between two to three hours). At all the roadblocks the way they are organised depends on the soldiers there. There are ‘hot’ warnings and a ban on people between the ages of 15 – 35 crossing.At Awarta and Huwwara there is a process of detaining of cars trying to bypass roadblocks and the passengers are ‘hung out to dry’ for between two to four hours.The Barkan Industrial Area6:50 a.m. The huge mound is still in the road. There are cars parked in both directions. Pedestrians cross from side to side.Marda7:00 a.m. The gate to and from the village is open.Zeita7:00 a.m. Here too, the gate is open.Za’atra Junction west7:05 a.mA bus and three cars are in the queue which takes no longer than five to six minutes per vehicle to cross. The soldiers behave politely and respectfully to those crossing. They do not make problems although they carry out inspections according to orders. It is a pleasant surprise (don’t worry it ends when we arrive at Awarta and Huwwara).Za’atra NorthThree lanes are open for crossing. Pedestrians do not cross! They have to find a vehicle which will take them across the roadblock only. Most of the vehicles do not take them and they wait a long time just to get to the other side of the roadblock. How far is that? 200 metres?Borin (Yitzhar) Junction7:50 a.m.There are 25 vehicles in the queue.Beit Furiq8:00 a.m.The taxi drivers say that the roadblock opens on time and there are no new problems today. The Palestinian drivers have put up a kind of booth and planted two trees beside it. That is where they sit and wait for passengers.Everything goes on as usual. There is no queue of cars or of pedestrians. They arrive, are checked and cross over. The dog handler is present and there is music coming out of the soldiers’ booth. Calm.Awarta8:25 a.m. 12 people are detained inside the concrete room. They were caught when driving across the field of olives at 7:30 a.m. (according to them) 7:58 (according to the soldiers). Their I.D. cards were taken away from them as well as their cell phones! We enabled them to inform their families and their work place, using our phones, where they were. They were forced to stay there for two hours and the driver four hours. That is what the roadblock commander is allowed to sentence them to and if he were strict (according to him) he could ask his commander to lengthen the time of the punishment. But he didn’t!!!There is no roof over the concrete room and the July sun beat down on their heads. The soldiers brought them a bottle of cold water but sent away the boy who wanted to bring them coffee from the employees’ tent: “This is not a cafe”, they said.One of them, a bank manager in Ramallah who lives in Ramallah with his wife and children but whose parents live in Nablus and he himself still has a house there, cannot for that very reason change his address to Ramallah and he is forbidden to return to his house and his work after a visit to his parents. (They were released at 10:05 a.m. – by telephone.)A towing truck is not permitted to cross in spite of the fact that both the driver and the truck have a permit. The vehicles he is towing to be repaired and to be MOT’d in Nablus have not got permits. The soldiers suggest they be repaired in Huwwara but, what a pity, there are no spare parts and they do not MOT vehicles there. (We pass on the details to Sylvia P.)Abdullah tells us that they are going to move the Awarta roadblock to Sha’ar Efraim within a few months. This means it will take the local Palestinian employees a great number of hours a day to cross the roadblocks on the way and get to work. Now the roadblock is empty, there is no work and the employees sit bitterly in the tent where they have set up a ‘cafeteria’ for themselves.Huwwara9:55 a.m.18 people are imprisoned in the concrete room meant for detainees. They were caught in a car which tried to bypass the roadblock. Among them are elderly and sick people. They have been there since 7:30 a.m. according to them. The driver says that he came from Nablus and waited at the roadblock for almost three hours, then another hour at Borin roadblock, at the third one (we didn’t understand where) he bypassed it and was caught with the passengers.Apart from them an Israeli Arab has been detained since 8:00 a.m., he had been to visit his wife in Nablus.We heard loud shouts from the area of the turnstiles. A shrill and rude female sergeant shouted at those in the queue. Huge crowded queues spread beyond the shed. We tried to see where the queue ended but the sergeant screamed at us to move to the area of the first turnstiles.2nd lieutenant Eli, is the roadblock commander and another 2nd lieutenant (Matan?) and a lieutenant – we did not manage to find out their names because we were required to stand far away from them – were there.There are two checking lanes and they work extremely slowly. There is a bunch of soldiers and officers by the checkpoint, joking and laughing. Those who cross are irritable and bitter… According to them they have already been waiting there for three hours in the heat and the sun. A young man who passes by us with his arm bandaged complains that the soldiers did it. We wanted to note down his details but he continued to walk on angry and indignant. An elderly woman with a bad leg sits down on a block at the side of the roadblock. She is unable to continue to the taxis. We took her in our car.10:55 a.m.The very old and the sick are released. 11 remain in the lock-up. (We took telephone numbers from two of those waiting to find out the time of their release but I was unable to make contact when I tried a number of times later on (Ada).