Anabta

09:15-09:30 - very few cars, hardly any checks.

Ar-Ras

09:45-10:15 - an encounter with the Likkud group of women called Women in Blue and White. From afar we identify the wide-brimmed hat of the tall one, Yael. Upon reaching the checkpoint we hear the short one, Rikka, scream: Go on to the village! The Arabs are murderers! They'll scalp you! We decide not to run away, and we get out of the car. We are aware that normal observation is impossible, but escaping is not a good idea either. There are four of them today, one somewhat older and seemingly more normal. Yael repeats again and again, literally scores of times, in a low monotonous voice: "Idiots, you are endangering the soldiers!" Even her friends seem to lose patience with her. Rikka yells: "You know what they used to call you? Arafat whores! That's what you are! Arafat whores!" I lift my cellphone camera and try to shoot them, the camera is not working. I pretend to take their photos anyway. Yael approaches me and hits me in the face with her bag, again and again and again. I only say quietly "don't you dare touch me!" The older one seems to be slightly embarrassed, the fourth woman curses and yells. We just laugh, and this drives them crazy. Rikka decides to do something, "I'll show you!" she stoops down to pick a stone. The checkpoint commander, who witnessed the whole scene, tried weakly once or twice to calm them down. We didn't speak to him, didn't ask him to interfere.

05:40, Bethlehem CP. Quite orderly, at the other side too, people reported. At a certain moment pressure built near the checking posts, and though it took some time, finally a fifth post was opened.

08:00, Ezyon DCL. About seven people.

Translation: Rachel B.

It seems like what we observed today is a common phenomenon in the mornings during Ramadan (or maybe this is a result of despair) - the traffic of local residents going from one place to another is very light at all the checkpoints.

All the way to the Zaatara/Tapu'ach Junction there are no delays at any of the entrances to the villages.

Zaatara/Tapu'ach Junction

There is one car being checked on the approach from the west.  From the direction of Nablus there are 12 cars in line but none are detained and the traffic is flowing.

Huwwara

Other than butcher shops and the grocery stores, everything is still closed at 7:50 AM, apparently because daily activity starts later.

Yitzhar Junction

The checkpoints are not staffed either on the road to Huwwara and Beit Fureik, or on the way back.

Beit Fureik Junction: 8:00 AM

When we arrive the checkpoint is empty and there are no cars from either direction, neither coming in nor going out of Nablus.

In the soldiers' station there is one soldier, wearing a black kippah, who is praying.  A car arrives from Beit Fureik and immediately one of the soldiers signals the driver to come up to have the documents checked and the car goes through.  This is how things went the whole time we were here.

Once in a while a car or van drove up, the passengers, men and women on their way to Nablus, got out, got checked and proceeded quickly on their way.

A resident of Beit Fureik arrives.  He is married to a woman from the village and holds a Jordanian passport and a note that declares that he has applied for an ID card as part of "Family Reunification."  (To the best of our knowledge, he should expect to wait a long time for the ID card...)

He is detained, according to the soldiers on suspicion of holding a fake passport, because details in it are handwritten.  The checkpoint commander calls and requests assistance with verifying the validity of the passport.  The soldier who had been praying comes forward, explaining that he is from the Military Police, and states that the passport is OK and that there were periods in the past when details were written in by hand.  The passport is returned to its owner, the whole process having taken about 20 minutes. The man continues on his way to Nablus.

8:45 AM

The checkpoint is filling up with about 35 people waiting in line.  We check the time - it took 7 minutes to process all of them through the checkpoint. A number of women come out from Nablus with large, heavy packages balanced on their heads.  The soldiers don't check them and let them go through.

Altogether everything is going along smoothly and calmly, certainly relative to what happened yesterday.

Huwwara Checkpoint: 9:10 AM

Flowing traffic of residents going into Nablus in the morning and only a few people heading out of Nablus.

There are no cars either entering or exiting Nablus. It appears to us from a distance that the soldiers are playfully harassing one of the porters, not clear to us if in a friendly way to harass him.

9:20 AM

There are 4 cars at the entrance, a soldier arrives at the checkpoint and they are free to go through. There are 10 residents waiting at the exit.  They go through the usual examination which, for a change, is not done in a rude way.  Usually they are not required to take off their belts, just to empty their pockets.  People stop next to us and say "How long {will we have to endure this}?"

An elderly man stops next to us and asks us to get him a certain MachsomWatch sticker, maybe it would help him pass through the checkpoint without any problems.

9:30 AM

There is no one waiting to exit from Nablus. To the side of the turnstiles and checkpoint, a man passes by supporting an elderly woman with her eye bandaged up.

9:40 AM

A few people are waiting at the checkpoint.

A car with an Israeli license plate and a symbol of the European Union tries to enter into Nablus.  The driver has an entry permit but the car does not. He turns around and goes back.

Following him, another car with an Israeli license plate approaches.  According to the driver they always pass through without any problem.  In the car there is an activist from a German human rights organization.  The soldiers check their papers every which way - meaning the documents for both the car and the passengers.  The car has an entry permit.  The soldiers check the vehicle - they open the back door, move things around, etc. When they are done the German yells at them: ""You made a mess of these things, now put them back in order!  I come from a civilized country and you live in a civilized country too."  The soldiers are embarrassed and they put things back in order.

Close to 10:00 AM we left, as there was no dramatic change in the pattern of traffic.

On the way back, at the Zaatara/Tapu'ach Junction there is only one car from the direction of Nablus and 2 cars coming form the west.

Translation: Hanna K.
The last week of the Ramaddan

Summary:

Violence at Huwwara.

Inhabitants of the villages east of Nablus are not allowed to pass over to Beit Furiq, not with standing the Ramaddan and the promises given/

14:03 Zaatara CP: From North to South - a queue of 27 cars.

From West to East there is one car being checked.

14:08 The Yitzhar CPs
In both directions are not manned.

14:20 Beit Furik CP; 
A stinking odour (perhaps a carcass) at the CP. 6 cars in the queue leaving Nablus. There are no detainee. In the pedestirans' queue about 10 people  coming from Nablus are waiting.
Only one checking post is manned by two military-policemen, who perform the checking slowly, with rest periods, and then, with a sign of the finger indicate to the next person due to be checked, that his turn has come. The queue becomes longer,
 
At 14:25 about 20 people are waiting. People leaving Nablus are asked if the army allows the passage from the neighboring villages to Beit Furiq and they say that it isn't.
 

14:35 - it begins to be crowded in the pedestrians' shed.

The checking is of the four last digits, there is no computer. Only one turnstile is active and the women who don't know this are waiting in vain in the queue that they formed separately, until we drew the attention of the CP commander to this.

14:47 a 16 year old boy tries to pass with his brother's ID. The soldiers say that they would let him pass if a family member would come to fetch him. They send the boy and his friend to the detainees' shed.

14:55 We go to the detained boy to get his details, the CP commander hurries to go to him and instructs him to return to Nablus. When they stand next to the CP the commander chases them away : "away with you, away with you!".

One of the soldiers told us with utmost certainty that the inhabitants of the nearby villages are allowed to pass over to Beit Furiq without authorizations, in honor of the Ramaddan. The CP commander on the other hand says that they cannot pass and that the former provision was cancelled.

15:05 A young man in whose ID it is written that he is from Jiftlik,  is not allowed to pass in the direction of Beit Furik.

The queue is full till the edge of the shed.

15:19  A soldier at the CP eats in full view of those waiting in the queue. When we comment on that, the CP commander says that no instruction was given not to eat in front of the fasting people waiting in the queue in the month of the Ramaddan. After we photographed the food (not the soldier!) the CP commander chases us away.

15:27  Awarta - one car is waiting.

15:34 Huwwara:
There are two detainees in the solitary confinement cell. The soldier tells Michal to go away and doesn't let her talk to them. He tells us that the boy (aged 14) is detained because he tried to pass by a roundabout route, and was caught already 4 times, and the second (according to the soldier) is a driver who tried to seize a weapon. The taxi drivers tell us that a soldier came up to the driver unexpectedly, with his gun held horizontally and held with both hands - he came up close to the driver and pushed him - and the driver had no choice but to hold the gun, so as not to fall backwards.

A taxi driver arrives and says that today, around 12:00 while he was sitting in the taxi he saw in his rear window a soldier approaching the taxi and kicking with his foot the plastic cover of the rear light until he broke it - without any reason whatsoever. 

The CP  is crowded.The soldiers shout at the people in the queue to move back. A soldier shouts at the detained boy's cousin "go, go away!" another soldier screams at an elderly woman: "imshi! imshi!"

16:08 The CP  commander (I.) walks among the people and screams at them nervously and threateningly. He shouts at Michal. Shouts at Yehudit. His words are rudeness, obscenities and verbal violence.
 

16:22 A soldier shouts in the loudspeaker "to go back!" the soldiers scream, in the packed-full queue the people scream aswell. The CP commander also shouts at the soldiers. There are many soldiers at the CP.

A womanwho has been waiting for here husband for a long time bursts into tears, the DCO officer Y. helps to find the husband and take him across. The DCO officer also help to take across a young man with edema in his legs, but when we ask him about the detainees he is not prepared to listen to a different version than that of the soldiers.

We met one of the children coffee-vendors; he told us that yesterday, even before he arrived at the CP, when he still was on the road, an officer stopped next to him and slapped him hard on the cheek.

A soldier leads a lad who looks like a student - he holds books and his expression signifies that he has no idea what is happening, we were forbidden to approach the solitary confinement cell, we were able to see from time to time two or more soldiers going there.

Michal: "I am going to see what is happening with the detainees in the cell. I hear screams of soldiers from the cell and shouts of pain".  The soldiers notice her  and chase her away.

16:50 The detained driver is released (the one who allegedly tried to "snatch weapons") and  his friend (the one who gave us his different version from that of the soldier) takes the trouble to bring him to us  and the driver says that when he was in the cell a few soldiers arrived from time to time and beat the boy who was there and cursed him [he gave us a name and a telephone number].

The student was released. When we tried to ask him why he was detained in the cell the soldier called him aside and talked to him - the student went to the parking lot with the soldier tailing him and we went down the steps to the parking lot, intending to hear what the lad was punished for but he evaded us - somebody asked him in Arabic what the matter was and the lad said that the soldier had warned him that if he would so much as look in our direction - the soldier would send him back to Nablus.
 

17:10 The boy was released - we tried to talk to him: we waited at the parking lot, but even there the boy avoided talking to us, while two soldier stood and watched.

All during our stay at the CP we called the Center a few times and reported to N. what our eyes saw and what our ears heard.

17:15 we left the CP.

The Yitzhar CPs are empty.

It is still dark when we arrive, there’s a queue of about 300 workers, and the passage is very slow. We peek into the checking booth and see 4 soldiers who are supposed to find out why things are so slow, but two of the women soldiers are sitting and eating sandwiches. When they saw us, they stopped eating and went to check things out. The line began to move. We timed the procedure to 15 minutes per worker, a normal rate.

We commented about the incident to the officer in charge, who promised to keep it in mind.

Here and there soldiers stop trucks passing through the checkpoint, and carry out sloppy inspections. They could bring through cannon and the soldiers wouldn’t see it, not to mention explosive belts. They drive the Palestinians crazy inside the area, and at the main gate the inspections are amateurish and superficial. The officer in charge claims that a new passage will be opened soon on the green line, and things will improve. We’ll see.

Every now and then the soldiers detain workers for 20 minutes as sample inspections. Three border police are standing guard around the checking booth. They stand there quietly without intervening, perhaps to correct what happened the week before when one of the BP intervened and caused even greater delays by “flexing his muscles” and busy educating everyone.

It seems that a fax to the commander of the brigade probably solved the problem.

We left the checkpoint at 6:30.

Summary:

Thorough checks of pedestrians at the entrance to Nablus, including women and elderly, and long lines. No real change in the state of building.

07:35 Jit Junction – no checkpoint.

07:50 Beit Iba

About seven cars in line at the entrance to Nablus. A bus is being inspected at the entrance. The passengers are not alighting, or the youngsters were taken off first. IDs collected, checked, and the bus is released after 5-7 minutes. The checks are relatively thorough and long – 15 minutes for seven cars.

A taxi driver told us that the line at el-Bidan is very long and, as usual, there is little that can be done about it.

The pedestrian line at the entrance is very long. Sometimes reaches 50 women and 30 men. Still in the sun without shade. Let’s hope that when rain starts the roofing will be ready. The women are crowded together, line unclear, hot and unpleasant, especially when there are babies and small children.

The checkpoint commander is meticulous, not unpleasant but almost inconsiderate, checks himself and takes care that there are a number of checking stations, but doesn’t pass old women or mothers with babies. In the hut, three detainees. When they dare to stand on the side closest to the checkpoint, the commander blurts “Retards, sit!!!” and sends one of his soldiers to seat them.

The detainees, two youngsters who aren’t really excited by the situation, sneaking through, and detained though their IDs have been checked, as “punishment,” according to the commander’s announcement as he promises us, when we leave Beit Iba, that they will be released in 20 minutes. A third detainee, an eleven year old boy, “lost” his father who crossed before him into Nablus. The checkpoint commander will release him at 08:37, while we are there, and demands that the boy retraces his steps. The child will try to pass later with his “adopted” father, but is identified by the commander who sends him back yet again. Children cannot pass without parents, and a girl who comes with her aunt is not permitted to cross. Those are the orders, the commander says, though he makes exceptions when the children are very small. The explanation is to prevent the use of children to transport explosives if they know that it can easily be done. It’s not clear how they really know that the specific child belongs to whoever identifies himself as the parent, nor is it clear what is the danger with a child more than with an adult in transferring explosive charges – after all the child’s bags can also be inspected....

08:30 – It takes 13 minutes to check 40 women.

A peddler from Qusin dares to infiltrate and is punished for having no permit to enter Nablus this week.

08:40 – the line of women is down to ten, though there are still 30 men.

08:50 – no lines.

09:00 – we leave.

09:05 – Shavei Shomron – passage to Jenin still closed, as is the road up to the blocked village.

13:30 Qalqiliya

As we arrive at the checkpoint there are 17 vehicles waiting to enter Qalquilya and 1 vehicle on the other side coming out.  The soldiers are working efficiently and the traffic moves rapidly, but there is always a line to go in.  

Across from Jit we notice that the doors of the building where they process the olive oil is open, looks like they are preparing for the harvest, and just a bit farther before the junction we see women in the field picking the olives. Later when we speak to Jamal, he says they will be starting just after Ramadan, but that some have already started the harvest. 

Jit Junction

No soldiers, no vehicles only concrete dividers at the intersection

14:20 Shavei Shomron 

We checked out to see if there was anything new behind the wall, but the same, the lonely trees still standing, the wire fence is wired up with electricity as well as the top of the wall. And the barrier is closed at the top of the road to the road to Jenin.

14:40 Deir Sharaf

We stop to say hello to Jamal, it is very quiet, and his market looks more barren, less products on the shelves.  Jamal says business is quiet; he seems to look forward to the olive harvest coming up after Ramadan.

15:00 Beit Iba

There is much commotion and noise at the entrance, the traffic is backed up to the Hawash Bros, there are trucks and taxis and a lot of honking, pedestrians are trying to make their way through the vehicles to safety.  

As we arrive at the vehicle CP we see the soldiers checking the IDs of vehicles coming out of Nablus, the check is slow.

Approaching the CP we notice the new addition of cement filled floor from the new structure to the existing booth.

The crowd of people was terrific, and was like this the entire time we were there.  There were at most times between 5 – 7 soldiers, but they were not working efficiently and not in a pleasant manner, they were shouting and motioning with their hands in their belittling fashion.

As bad as we think it is today, a well dressed man comes up to us to tell us today is far better than yesterday (Shabbat) he said that in his opinion, Saturdays and Wednesdays are the worse days.  He said that yesterday the soldiers were “arrogant, cruel and brutal”.

There are 5-7 soldiers at vehicle CP but they are working very slowly, a lot of chit chatting between themselves. Although the vehicle lines are down and there are few vehicles waiting.

16:30 Anabta

There are 10 vehicles waiting to enter Tulkarm and none coming out. Israeli vehicles are waved through without any check, while Palestinians taxis are often stopped and checked sporadically

The fig vendor is no longer here, two weeks ago he had shown us a letter from the authorities to move from the spot because he was obstructing the flow of traffic, since last week he was gone.

17:00 Ar-Ras

Very quiet, hardly any traffic, the soldiers are very friendly, actually the only ones that spoke to us the entire day.

Jubara

We ended our day stopping in at Abu Ghatem and his family, his grandson was visiting so it was a joyful end to another stressful day at the checkpoints.

Sheikh Saed:
06:45 - The soldiers are busy with an improvised fence that seems to fall beside the narrow road. Their aim is to prevent parking near the checkpoint. In the checkpoint people go through without any problem, under the observing eye of the commander of the region who is in site and makes passage easy.

While the area is under construction for a permanent building (that was given permission lately by the Supreme Court), there is only a narrow and stony path left at the end of the area, and people can pass there to both sides - one person at a time. It is true that the buldozers are supposed to arrive, but in the meanwhile all the area is open, and the passage way is impossibley narrow and rocky, to the point of insulting the population. And of course there can happen unfavorable falls. There is no justification to those conditions.

On the way to Ras El Amud we bump into run-over-cats, and a lot of garbage on the sides of the road. Why doesn't the municipality of Jerusalem takes away the garbage here more often? The sight is simply disgusting.

The Container:
08:00 - An impressive mission of hight officers and their helping team and drivers is in the place. They do not even look at us, not to mention answer our "Shalom" (hallo). We don't know if they are here in order to examin some way of good will act towards the Palestinians before the talkes or in order to check the possibility of some permanent changes here too. In any case, the traffic flows and there are no detains ore vehicles being checked.

Zeitim CP:
09:00 - Despite Ramadan there are almost no people passing. A group of students with Palestinian documents from El-Kuds university in Abu-Dis, 17-18 years of age, ask for our help to go to El-Aksa. There in no chance, answers Elisha. The rule is to let go only women above 40, and also people with blue ID's, or severe humanitairian cases. We suggest that they go to the Palestinian DCO and try and ask to go through tomorrow - maybe things will change, but they give up. They wanted to go today. A big dispappointment for them.