'Awarta, 'Azzun 'Atma, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Tue 2.2.10, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
08:30 Beit Furik – there are no soldiers at the CP. Cars are heading for Nablus.
Awarta – trucks pass without hindrance
08:45 Huwwara
Vehicles are checked both at the entrance and at the exit of Nablus.
In the direction of the entrance – a soldier and a border policeman from time to time stop a bus or a taxi. When we arrived there was a minibus with young men and women (students?) from Beita, which had been waiting since 10 minutes for the checking of papers (of the men only). The young women in the minibus don't smile to us, in spite of our efforts. I would not smile either. After another 5 minutes they pass.
At the exit from Nablus – there are 4 soldiers and one border policeman, a sergeant from the DCO (a Druze soldier who speaks Arabic) as well as a girl dog trainer. The soldiers have stopped a taxi with two young men, the others pass, a few minutes later a minibus is stopped as well.
The papers are checked via the communications system, and they are waiting for an answer.
Ten minutes later they haven't been released yet, we approach to see what is the matter.
Now a vehicle of the Palestinian Authority with 8 young men is stopped (new recruits for the Police?) . All are requested to get out, the papers are checked as well as the vehicle, by the dog . In the meantime the DCO man asks 2 young men at a time to leave the minibus, and interrogates them.
We waited to see when all the detainees would be released: the small taxi was released 40 minutes later, the minibus 35 minutes later, the jeep of the Authority 25 minutes later.
We left at 09:30.
We passed through Huwwara village and couldn't resist – falafel and baklawa too!
10:00 Za'tara - 16 vehicles wait to pass, the traffic flows, there are no delays.
10:30 Azzun Atma
4 soldiers, among which is the same soldier girl from last week who detained for half an hour two persons with glasses (from their home) for repair, because they had no authorization to move glass. At the moment there is nobody at the CP and we didn't wait to see her in action again.
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