Hebron, Sansana, South Hebron Hills, Tarqumiya, Tue 30.6.09, Morning

Trans.: Revital S.

Sansana: The sand lorries are at work. There are no family visits while we're there. The stall keepers tell us that yesterday  was very busy here and that the last worker crossed only at half past nine, which is very unusual. We asked them again to ring us in real time. Two people cross the CP while we're there and they look and sound as if everything is ok.

Road 60
Barely any traffic.

Hebron
No detainees at any of the city's CPs - the House of Dispute, the Pharmacy, Curve 160, Tarpat, Tel-Rumeida, Abraham Avinu Neighborhood, under the Cordoba School stairway or the Patriarchs' Tombs' Cave. Apart from the children milling about doing nothing, the city seems entirely deserted and it is very hot. In the parking lot of the Patriarchs' Tombs' Cave, Jewish music is blasting away and the store keeper is complaining. They've given up the idea of retaliating with loud music of their own. They're afraid and for good reason.

Hebron Tales
We stopped to say hello to a family we know close by the Pharmacy CP. Some mothers told us that the soldiers stationed there are showing youngsters from the neighbourhood pornographic sites on their mobile phones. This is not a cultural gap, but inadmissible behaviour in any culture.
At Qufaisha quarter, on the road leading to Give'at ha-Harsina, we go into the office at the factory to talk to James, a London-based reporter, who plans to shoot a movie on MachsomWatch. The factory owner tells us that a Border Police soldier, driving Jeep (licence plates: 61116) forbade them to use the pitchfork outside the factory, thus making it impossible for them to transfer raw material past the CP, because Palestinian traffic is not allowed there. The officer to whom our interlocutor complained told him that it is illegal to forbid the use of such machinery for work purposes, but the he keeps being harrassed by the Border Police. We asked him, too, to let us when things actually happen, so that we may be able to do something in real time.

Highway 35
There are distinctly more Palestinian vehicles than the usual. 
At the Idna-Tarqumiya grocery we're told that the "life arrest" procedure is no longer implemented and only sporadic inspections are carried out.
At the old Tarqumiya CP many lorries are queuing to cross and there's still no shade, toilets or drinking water anywhere. We know that authorization processes are in progress.

Highway 317
Across from Hirbat Tiwani we see a lot of military vehicles, soldiers and two civilian buses. We stop to inquire and are told it's a hike for the Yehuda Brigade and a settlers' college. They are walking pleasantly along, their rifles dangling, in the usual symbiosis of the settlers and the army, to see (the settlment) Carmel's water pool. Children sit on the Hirbat Tiwani hills but no Carmel people are to be seen anywhere around. The Lords of the Land enjoy themselves, never stopping to ask for permission. One officer was telling us what they were about to do, when a colleague silenced him, saying we're traitors.