Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Thu 25.2.10, Morning
Translation: Suzanne O.
Sha'ar Shomron East
6:40 a.m.
Open freely, no inspections.
The entrance to Marda is open, nothing new at the barrier to Zeita and Jemayn.
Za'atra/Tapuach Junction
7:00 a.m.
A tower has been built for the soldier guarding the menorah at the roundabout. There is no queue at the roadblock.
Borin/Yitzhar
Empty
Beit Furiq
7:25 a.m.
The roadblock appears clear of soldiers. A number of threatening spiked barriers are at the side of the road. Against whom? We heard on the radio that yesterday a number of settlers visited Josef's Tomb, accompanied by soldiers. They are looking after the national heritage.
There are flags all around the town; particularly those of George Habash's National Front for the Liberation of Palestine. It is the annual anniversary of something.
Awarta
There are no cars queuing.
Huwwara
7:40 a.m.
At the historical entrance to the car park there are two Border Policemen taking apart a Palestinian car. They are removing its number plates. According to them he left Nablus with forged number plates. After it is inspected thoroughly it is driven off to Nablus without number plates!
Once again they tried to claim that the huge car park is a closed military area but I wasn't convinced and they left me alone.
The new road is made up of an entrance lane to Nablus, with an area for inspections, two lanes to exit Nablus plus a wide lane for security vehicles only, barred by spikes.
The roadblock commander refuses to give any information. He moves us away past the yellow barrier. He also instructs the Border Policemen not to talk to us. There is no dog handler present. Random inspections of taxis at the exit from the town continue. One of the taxis had to wait almost 10 minutes.
Borin/Yitzhar
There is no military activity.
Za'atra
8:20 a.m.
Most of the time there is no queue. A civilian policeman stops vehicles from time to time to inspect whatever policemen inspect. Mostly the drivers leave with a ticket. When the policeman carries out his inspection at the check points a long queue of cars immediately builds up.
The dog handler approaches us and asks us not to photograph her or her dog as they are classified. We promised.
We tried to talk to the Border Policeman to find out where the stabbing took place and why the stabbed person was forced to wait in the traffic jam (not him, he was on the telephone). Another soldier came over immediately, instructed him not to continue to talk to us and gave us the Blue & White women's instructions on what, in their opinion, we are and are not allowed to do.
We did not return via Jit because we went to contribute to the Palestinian economy in the Huwwara shops.