Beit Furik, Huwwara, Fri 12.6.09, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
Beit Furik
The barrier and the "humanitarian point" have disappeared. There remains only one small station with two soldiers. One of the soldiers, a sergeant, told us that the structure has been removed but that pedestrians are still not allowed to pass. It is allowed to pass by car till 23:00 hrs. The soldier also said that they are checking only cars that look suspicious, approximately one out of ten that pass. This according to him is done mainly so that the Palestinians should know that there still is a CP.
09:45 Huwwara
A few Palestinian taxi drivers and a cart owner told us that there are rumours that the CP is due to be closed. We asked the cart owner who lives near the CP what he will do after the CP will be closed, and he said that he would work in Nablus. We noticed that the X-ray machine has been brought closer to the CP.
Alexei, an officer with the rank of second lieutenant whom we had the pleasure of meeting at our previous visit too, forbade the two guests that were with us to take photos.
Second lieutenant Alexei asked us to remove ourselves and threatened to call the police. According to him it is forbidden for us to be there, as per the brigadier general's instructions. We asked him to show us the order, and reminded him of the argument we had with him last time regarding the same issue. The second soldier said: "you are grown up ladies and you know you have no right to stand here. You are not six year old girls".
We passed to the car area. There were two cars with three soldiers in each station. The traffic was sparse and each time two to three cars passed. A few minutes later a group of four soldiers, including Alexei and the soldier who had been with him, approached us. Again they asked us not to take photographs, telling us that "it is forbidden to photograph soldiers".
At the parking lot, before we prepared to leave, Alexei came up to us and asked to see the photos we had taken. The two guests who had taken the pictures refused to show them to him. He insisted that he had the authority of a policeman. We asked for the details of the soldier but he claimed that he had no soldier ID and forgot his name and personal details.
A few minutes later a jeep no. 611353 of the border police arrived and said that he was prepared to give us the details.
He also photographed our car.