0530-0950
Translation: Devorah K.

05:30 Rihan-Barta'a CP
It is early. There is not a single vehicle in the upper parking lot on the side of the seamline zone.
The CP is still closed. We wait for the manning of the positions. 05:40 - they open the vehicle CP and the terminal.
 
About 20 laborers are waiting near the gate on the side of the Palestinian parking lot. About 25 women seamstresses are sitting and waiting on the stones at the side. When the gate opens, the men are swallowed into the terminal, and after them, the women. More men and women, who keep arriving, enter immediately.

Men who are not inspected in the rooms begin to leave after less than 10 minutes. Women begin to come out about 10 minutes after that.
At the vehicle CP the cars are inspected by fours. The dog does its work. The first quartet of cars that entered when the CP was opened, leave for the seamline zone after 18 minutes. Two loaded pickup trucks and two private cars advance for inspection.

06:30 - We drive to the A'anin CP. Many cars are now waiting for passengers in the upper parking lot. Laborers and seamstresses are waiting for those who were taken into rooms for further inspection.  

06:40 - A'anin CP
The CP is open. It opened at 06:00. 
A few people and three tractors go through. We are told that about 70 people are waiting.

A man goes through with his two Israeli sons. Their mother is a resident of Umm el Fahm and he is not allowed to enter Israel because his brother killed a resident of A'anin in a local fight.

07:15 - A soldier keeps us at a distance from the gate. He says that another 30 people are waiting. The soldier says that all those with permits who arrived by 06:45 are going through. The others are 'late' and even though the CP is still open, they will not be allowed to go through.
07:20 - We left before they closed the CP.
 
07:25 Shaked-Tura CP
About 10 people are waiting on the Palestinian side. Two taxis go through from the seamline zone to the West Bank. The inspection hut is not operating. The soldiers do the inspection in the shade of a khaki sunshade. Anna asks to see the documents of a man who is not allowed to go through. The ultimate threat works: ' No one will go through until you get away from the gate!' In the end, the man passes the documents to us with one of the people who do go through. A few young boys and girls go through to the West Bank with school books. There are summer courses in the schools in Tura and in Ya'abed. 

08:25 Rihan - Barta'a CP
There are many cars waiting in the upper parking lot. We went down through the sleeve to the terminal entrance. At this time, mainly tradesmen and their employees from the shops in East Barta'a are going through. Some of them went through 'smoothly' and others were delayed in the inspection rooms. The criteria are not clear either to them or to us. There is relatively a lot of traffic to the West Bank as well. People going from the seamline zone to the West Bank are not taken into the rooms for inspection. A truck loaded with blocks of concrete enters the CP compound. Apparently there are still some empty spaces and slits that can still be sealed with concrete.
09:15 We went down to the Palestinian parking lot. Here, too, there are many cars waiting for passengers. A big family that we saw entering the terminal, now comes out and gets into a car to go to Tubas.

An old woman on a donkey arrives at the CP. A young man accompanies her on foot. She enters the terminal, leaning on a cane and the young man gets on the donkey, and takes the family vehicle back home.

The Rihan - Barta'a CP closes at 22:00 and so does the CP at Mavo-Dotan-Amriha. A man who is a resident of Amriha tells us that he works as a guard in Yaabed until midnight. He has a car, but he cannot go through the Amriha CP at night. When he tries to pass on a dirt road, soldiers stop him and delay him until 04:00. There is a great deal of traffic - military vehicles - at the CP. Maybe this is because of the settlers' invasion of Homesh. This is the first time that we have seen a hummer go through the yellow gate that connects the patrol road to the Palestinian parking lot.

The yellow gate creaked terribly when the soldier opened and closed it.  

09:50 we leave. 8 cars are waiting for inspection. 4 are being inspected at the vehicle CP. 5 pickup trucks loaded with many trays of eggs are waiting in the Palestinian parking lot.    

A test

Translation: Suzanne O.

We expected some ‘action' today - settlers had pledged a huge foray into Chomesh. On the news this morning it was reported that because of the readiness of the army they were postponing the event. In spite of this, apparently this was a cause for unnecessary tension. On the Ariel road west (towards Israel) - just after the crossing to the border - there is a temporary roadblock on the road. Hundreds of cars (belonging to settlers) are held up. This is indeed a rare sight. In contrast Tapuach Junction is quiet. There are no cars held up in either direction. Posters are stuck up on the concrete blocks calling for an incursion into Chomesh today, Tuesday.

Huwwara

8:20 a.m

As soon as we arrive it becomes obvious that the crossing is blocked in all directions. The soldiers explain to us that there is an ‘explosive device procedure'. There is a suspect car. They point it out: a blue Fiat is parked by the checkpoint at the exit from Nablus. All the Palestinians are moved away. Us too. The soldiers also move away from the centre of the roadblock.

9:00 a.m.

The wait continues. The number of Palestinians rises from moment to moment. Hundreds of people are waiting already. The soldiers tell us: they are waiting for the robot. We try to explain this to the people who crowd around us. It appears that no one believes it. They say "Dahwin" (show off). There is nothing. We, however, think that the soldiers really think that they have found something and they really don't want anyone to get hurt. But no one is convinced by what we say. Everyone who speaks to us - and all the Hebrew speakers take the opportunity to pass the time in heart to heart talks with us commenting philosophically on the general situation - they don't trust the soldiers. They are sure it is some kind of exercise to abuse them.

9:20 a.m.

The crowds grow ever larger. The old, the disabled, women with children in their arms; everyone stands around in the burning sun.

We try to speak to A., the roadblock and to Z., the DCO officer who has arrived. They reply to us politely: they are doing their utmost. We wonder about the efficiency of the I.D.F. Does it really take such a long time for the robot to come???

9:30 a.m.

The robot arrives. Someone (we did not see who) moves the suspect car away a bit, away from the junction. Suddenly the crossing is open. (First of all the question must be asked - why did they not do that earlier???)

There is a mad rush of the young to the turnstile and the rest of the crowd jostles after them. Between the fences leading to the turnstile there is a terrible crush. Hundreds of people run towards the cars, wanting to cross. The soldiers restrain them and order them to get into a queue for the turnstile.

The situation is now such: to get the hundreds, possibly over a thousand, people waiting through the turnstile could take many hours. In the crush, the tension and the heat, the elderly, women and children, the sick; it looks like madness to us. No one is inspecting all these people anyway, so what for? Why shouldn't they all cross via the road and have done with it?

We try to speak to the commander. He insists, "If we allow it we will lose control". We shout, trying to influence him again. The DCO person says to us: let me talk to him.

After a few minutes they announce that the elderly and women with children can cross via the road. Afterwards anyone, men and youngsters, start to cross too. Within about ten minutes the great crowd has crossed. Meanwhile a ‘controlled explosion' is heard from the direction of the suspect car. There was nothing there. Two older, frightened businessmen who were in the car explain to us that it is a hire car and that they tried to convince everyone that there was nothing in it, and they don't understand what it was that raised the soldiers' suspicions anyway. They too are released finally but they are sent back to Nablus. They have no exit permit with a car.

We remain quite stunned and upset by the whole event. Is it possible that all this was only a matter of obtuseness and even stupidity? Was there really no intention to show something to somebody? What is this small-minded syndrome? Even if the commander was convinced that he had to put the ‘explosive procedure' into force - what stopped him from allowing the crowds through by the road after the event? Did he not understand the potential of the anger, bitterness and humiliation that was created there? In the tension created could there not easily have been a violent incident which could have ended in disaster?

On the way back, at Jit Junction, military and police roadblocks await the settlers who might reach Chomesh. However, happily, we don't see any sign of them. They will surely turn up when the army is not ready for them.

 Translation:  Suzanne O. 

Za’atra
7:40 a.m. 
There are seven vehicles from the west to the east and thirty from the direction of Huwwara. 

7:50 a.m.
There is no roadblock at Yitzhar Junction.
 
Beit Furiq
8:00 a.m. 
There is no queue of vehicles.  There are about seven people at the roadblock and another few pedestrians who are making their way there. 

Awarta
8:10a.m. 
Quiet, no queue at entrance to village, There are about 8 lorries at the exit.  

Huwwara
8:15 a.m. 
The roadblock commander, T., comes over to us and asks us to leave the roadblock.  In fact we are only permitted to stand at the edge of the roadblock, by the taxi car park, but he ‘has our interests at heart’ and is ready to allow us to stand in the shade of the lock-up.  When we protested and told him the story of the white line, which in any case is shifted from time to time so that we are further and further away from the roadblock, it is our line and it is our right to stand on it, he contacted the Battalion C.O. who confirmed that we are to remain in the area at the edge of the car park.  The army also has an explanation of our expulsion:  “The roadblock must be sterile.”  (We, apparently, contaminate it.)  In addition T., demanded that we do not speak to the soldiers and, when necessary, speak only to him. 

8:30 a.m.
A Canadian woman from the ISM organisation approaches us, she has heard about us, and admires our activities.  She helps out in a kindergarten in Nablus. 

8:35 a.m.
There is a long queue into Nablus.  About 50 people are crowded around the turnstile into the town.  The turnstile holds them up.  What is the turnstile for?  We ask T., this question.  He explains that it is one way only and does not permit anyone to exit from Nablus.  When we raise the possibility that, if someone wants to, they can sneak in through the area beside the turnstile he answers:  anyone doing so can expect, according to army orders, to be shot.
There are about 15 – 20 in the queue to leave Nablus. 
The x-ray machine is in place.
A young woman, with a baby in a buggy, who is on her way to Nablus approaches the soldiers and requests permission to cross on the east side of the roadblock.  T., and another soldier know a bit of Arabic, but not enough to understand her, and she asks and pleads for quite a time, until it turns out that she cannot get the buggy through the turnstile.  She is permitted to cross by the side of the roadblock. 

8:40 a.m.
A woman with a small child who has an injured hand also asks if she can cross without going through the turnstile.  By the time we found a translator who could understand what she wants the queue at the turnstile had lessened and the Palestinian translator advised her to go back and cross via the turnstile.
A South African from a World Church Organisation waits for some colleagues who are due to get here.  They are going to Kafer Yanun where they will stay for a few weeks.  Later the rest of the group arrives and they praise our work for the Palestinians. 

8:45 a.m.
A young man is put in the cell and released within a few minutes. 

9:00 a.m. approximately
A Military Policewoman checks a pregnant woman in the inspection booth for two minutes and she then leaves. 

9:45 a.m.
A man from Beit Fuqa approaches us; his son is a student in Nablus and crosses the roadblock daily on his way to his studies.  Yesterday his I.D. card was mislaid at the roadblock.  He has a permit from the DCO which states that ‘his document was lost by soldiers at the roadblock’.  The roadblock commander does not deny this.  The father has come to find out whether, meanwhile, the document has been found.  It has not been found and he is concerned that his son will suffer hardships on his way to his studies even though he has the above permit as well as a photocopy of his I.D. card.  T., advises him to go to the DCO again to apply for a new I.D. card and assures him that with the permit his son will have no problem crossing the roadblock.  What is going on here:  the soldiers lost the document and the father has to run around to get a new one.  Will the army reimburse him for the cost of a new document? 

10:10 a.m.
We leave the roadblock. 

Za’atra
11:00 a.m. 
There are no vehicles at the roadblock.