Awarta, Beit Furik, Beit Iba, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Thu 15.11.07, Afternoon

Share:
Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Email
Observers: 
Rachel A. Yehduiet L. (reporting)
Nov-15-2007
|
Afternoon

Natanya translating.

1. One shift to two areas.

2. Shoes.

12.57 Zeita.  
The entrance blocked with cement blocks.
 

13.02 Za'tara. 
One checking area to the cars coming from the west. No waiting. Two checking areas to those coming from the north (Nablus)  with 4 cars waiting. For a change the soldier smiles at those arriving and lets them through without delay.

13.16  Yitzhar is empty.
 

At the turning to the DCO we see police cars, 2 ambulances and settlers but as we go to see what is happening the police call to us through the microphone not to block the passage (which we were not)  and so we do not know what happened.
 

13.23 Huwwara.
Here we were told that the women settlers had thrown bottles at cars in the parking lot. They were still there when the police cars and ambulances left and we could not find out more.

There were two detaineesinfo-icon in the enclosure. One lad who had tried to bypass and R. who always has a problem with his ID and was freed after half an hour and said about the soldiers that they were only doing their jobs!!
A man arrives and says that his neighbour who had been detained had not received his phone back. He gave us the name and said he would come back with further details but did not.

3 checking areas, pressure, about 100 people waiting for the checking of IDs, parcels and the ritual dance of undressing and maybe also the x-ray machine on the other side. There is also  a humanitarian line.

Car lane. At the entrance to Nablus  IDs, permits and licenses are checked but cars leaving are checked more carefully.

A Palestinian policeman is sent to the enclosure and when T. from the DCO arrives he does not know why this is so and has no further details. It seems that the policeman had on shoes of the Israeli army  and the soldiers did not know what to do. The solution was to let the Palestinian go to his place of work with Abu Mazen in Ramallah (he is from Jenin) ....without his shoes.  And so a Palestinian policeman stands at an army checkpoint in his socks. He agreed to go with us to Ramallah to look for a shoe shop which we found and the policeman left there with a present of a new pair of shoes which looked like the ones he had had on.

15.23 Beit Furik.
One detainee who had been found on a forbidden road. No pressure of cars or pedestrians. The commander will not let us stand where we usually do and says we may not pass the white line and sends us away and we inform Naomi.

Next to the thicket in front of the entrance to Awarta stands a bearded settler with his van loaded with trees for firewood.
 

15. 49 Awarta.
18 Palestinian trucks which arrived from Awarta wait to pass the checkpoint in the direction of Nablus. We phone R. at the centre and inform her of this. She promises to see what she can do. As soon as we arrive the commander sends us away from the place where we usually stand..... as had happened  at Beit Iba  ...claiming that we were bothering them. Only when we had moved off  to parking lot did the trucks start passing swiftly as if to say that they had been held up because of our presence. This was not so as when we arrived we had already seen  the  stationery line from the main road and that was the reason that we had gone in to Awarta.

16.12 Huwwara. Slightly less pressure and no detainees.
 
Yitzhar.  Was empty and Jit was not manned.
 

16.43 Beit Iba.
There were 21 cars in both directions. The pedestrians had parcels and IDs checked and those going into Nablus were checked randomly and people hardly had to wait. When we left there were still 15 cars waiting to go into Nablus and we phoned the centre where D. said she would check. We see buses filled with children and women waiting in the long line of cars and ask ourselves what happens when one of them needs a toilet.