Tayasir, Tue 29.3.11, Afternoon

Translator:  Charles K.

The photographs:  every possible crossing from the Jordan Valley eastward to the main road has been blocked to local residents by mounds of earth, boulders, and ditches

Want to know where you are?  No problem!  Soon you’ll know.

13:15 – Bezeq checkpoint

A gardener is planting flowers in the shape of some text.  We’ll decipher it next time.  We see the weapon pointing from behind the position.  The man holding it isn’t looking at the road.  We go past.

The whole area is green and flowering in yellow and purple.  Cattle and sheep are scattered everywhere.

Did your car get stuck?  No problem!  Notify the police and get a military escort.

13:40  A car by the side of the road, below the Rotem settlement.  A man wearing a yarmulka stands next to it.  Two soldiers with weapons at the ready stand on the berm to the west of the

road. “Don’t worry; the tow truck will be here soon,” the settler from Shiloh-Amona told us.  When he notified the police that there was something wrong with his car, soldiers were sent to watch over him.

Want to reach the southern neighborhood of Maskiyot without any trouble?  No problem!  The road has been paved for you too. But, if you’re a Palestinian who just wants to live his life, and cross the road with his flock?  Or on foot? Or on a tractor?  A donkey? A car?  No problem!  The IDF won’t let you.

13:50  Between the settlements of Ro’i and Beqa’ot they’re raising the berm higher and higher.  A bulldozer is working to the east, guarded (?) by a soldier, a backhoe to the west, guarded (?) by a soldier; all the gaps along the road are blocked by earth or boulders.

If you still have to cross – no problem!  The IDF will wait for you, twice a week, twice a day, half an hour each time, at the Gochia gate.

15:10  Gochia checkpoint

A military vehicle with two soldiers from a combat engineering unit wait next to the gate. No one comes.  The gate is locked.

Want to see what happens at the checkpoint?  No problem!  You can’t.

13:55  Hamra checkpoint

Beat it! That was our welcome from the tower.  We didn’t.  Nor did they harass us. 

No unit flags, only an Israeli flag flying from the position on the road.

Ten soldiers, one continually pointing his weapon toward the road and the cars.  No congestion.  Buses and taxis. They tell us it’s ok now, but the morning is terrible!  Especially from 05:00-06:00.

A transporter from Sakhnin carrying hotel workers got lost going from Jerusalem to Tiberias, and went through the checkpoint toward Tubas.  A military car noticed them, and sent them back.  Didn’t anyone notice when they crossed to the west?

15:00  We left.

You don’t know where the “Tebetz base” is?  Do you want to know?  You’ve got a problem!  The sign on the pole at the junction has been removed.

15:25  Tayasir checkpoint

No flags.  Red/black flags at the base, with the picture of a lion of the Adir or Kfir battalion.  Light traffic in both directions.  We see that the automatic roadblock device has been removed – it was supposed to come up like a knife if a car breaks through the regular roadblock.

15:50  We left.

Saying farewell:  No problem!  The IDF conducts exercises and protects you.  We hear gunfire everywhere.

16:10  At the Bezeq checkpoint they told us to have a good trip, but not before we reported where we’d come from and where we’d been.