Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Tue 9.3.10, Morning
8:05 Za’tara checkpoint 12 soldiers in this large area with its various stations. Two soldiers at the lanes for cars coming from Nablus. We counted about 30 cars driving slowly (cars containing young men are glanced at and passed through, or sent to the parking lot for inspection). A taxi with 10 young men on their way to Jericho has been waiting since 7:50 for their documents to be verified. A dog and dog handler in the parking lot are inspecting a car. Another taxi is stopped, and released five minutes later. The dog handler inspects it also. The car being inspected is released. The taxi going to Jericho is released at 8:30 (approval of two passengers had been delayed). 8:40 Huwwara checkpoint 2 soldiers at the entry to Nablus, 4 at the exit. A soldier immediately approaches and tells us to move away; a Border Police soldier joins him and says that you can only stand here (they hadn’t coordinated with each other…). The soldier is annoyed that he intervened. Anyway, as usual we’re standing off to the side and not bothering anyone, so we don’t move. Every car detained is released in a few minutes. While we were there cars going in each direction were checked randomly.