Hamra (Beqaot), Tayasir

14:00- We went through the Bezeq CP on the way to the Tyasir CP. After Hamam el Malich, to the right of the road, we saw three parked cars with yellow (Israeli) licence plates. Two women who walked nearby told us that they are on a trip. It may be so. The truth is that during our last four shifts we found a surprising number of Israeli cars traveling there and back on the road to the Tyasir CP. It is surprising, not only because this activity is new, but also because on the face of it they do not have anything to do on this road that leads to a CP and beyond it to Area A where Israelis are not allowed to travel. The army comes and goes as they wish, and for the time being, there are no settlements anywhere down the road. When we came down, we saw two more Israeli cars parked on the right hand side of the road. We will not be surprised to discover that within the framework of the refusal to move out that the Jewish residents of the occupied valley are planning, they intend to set up a new settlement on the hills near the Tyasir CP.

14:20 - Tyasir CP

View on top: the garbage container is full to overflowing.

View on the bottom: One of the D9s on the Alon Road.

Three soldiers with the spotted caps of the Kfir Unit asked what we were doing there. We said that we are a shift of MachsomWatch and we were standing in an agreed-upon

spot. They did not know about the arrangement and contacted somebody to find out. In the meantime we saw them doing precise inspections of the baggage compartment of every car. Those who were going west on the road to Area A were inspected. "Why should they have ammunition there?" said one soldier. Really, why?

The improvised weaponry that was discovered, it is said, at the Hamra CP, according to the report of soldiers during our last shift, has been upgraded during the week since then, and now it was reported to be a Kalachnikov.

At 14:32 the soldier who went to find out about us and has returned told us that if we did not leave the place by 14:35 he would arrest us -- with handcuffs, but without a blindfold, because he had nothing to hide. Ruchele went down to the car to bring the letter that confirmed our right to do observations in the CPs and I guarded our spot. One of the soldiers snatched my notebook from me and refused to return it. In the end it was given back, after it was handed to the CP commander (a sergeant) at his request. He claimed that I had given it to him, and I answered that if that was the case, I now ask to have it back. In the meantime, an Israeli vehicle emerged from Area A and, a short time after, two military vehicles.

At 14:55 the lieutenant who was in charge of the sector arrived accompanied by soldiers equipped with cameras; he had been called by his soldiers at the CP, in order to banish us in person.

At 15:00 we left the CP with full IDF escort. The IDF came to check our IDs and did not allow us to leave, claiming that we refused to identify ourselves.

At 16:10, after we were forced to wait for the police which the soldiers had called, we left the Tyasir CP, but only after we were presented with a complaint and a summons to an interrogation at the Ma'aleh Efraim police station. (We will report when the legal handling of the case is done.)  Despite the fact that it was late and our nerves were shattered, we decided that we would not give in to terror and would continue our shift as planned. So we turned to the Hamra CP. We drove behind three D9 bulldozers that were apparently on their way to another dissatisfied client. On our right, on the road from Tyasir to Hamra, it was possible to see repairs being made to the mounds of dirt that the army set up as an obstacle to passing between the east side and the west side of the valley. The breaches, which have been filled again, still show no sign of grass and the new mounds are bare. At the Hamra Junction, a convoy of deadly vehicles turned to the east in the direction of the Jiftlik. Later, on our way home, at the Bezeq CP, we encountered three more bulldozers  which were going to the Valley. What destruction are they planning again to wreak with six bulldozers? 

16:40 - at the Hamra CP there is a line of seven vehicles waiting to go through to the west. Here too the baggage compartment of every car is inspected, including those which are going in the direction of the West Bank. 'The green lane, which usually is implemented in the CPs when they are manned by veteran soldiers, was not in operation. A new shift came in exactly when we were there, and kept up the queue of six or seven vehicles waiting to go through to the west. In the other direction, traffic was very thin.

17:00  - We left.

17:30 - At the Bezeq CP they inspected our baggage compartment as well.