Afternoon

Hawarra and Saara A. K., Edna, D.B. and a guest--a journalist from Holand-I. F.Summary--At the Zaatra (Tapuach) checkpoint and Saara there has been some improvement (Hakalot). The IDF has vacated the house it occupied in Saara (leaving damages). In Hawarra people have to wait for a long time, there is a bit less pressure because there are no students due to the holiday. Offer's presence is problematic and not helpful.Holiday--How nicely every body is dressed. How festive their clothes. How horrible that they are forced to spend their holiday at the checkpoint. This ugly place!Zaattara intersection--13:00 Lots of pressure but the checking is very fast. Pedestrians don't wait more than 10 min., buses one half hour, and even the line of cars moves. Even the detainees recieve their IDs within 10 min.Saara-- It's harder than on an ordinary day to watch the festive families making their way up the hill and arriving at the checkpoint breathless and sweaty. At least they don't need to wait for long at the checkpoint and best of all, this morning the IDF vacated the house it occupied (the second floor) for 10 months. Y., the owner of the house shows us the damages they left behind--graffitti on the walls, a hole in the floor where they installed a toilet that they removed when they left, holes in the walls, leaking pipes and filth! He is happy about their leaving. For him it's a double holiday but he is angry about the damage. The son, for whom the apartment was built (it was totally new when the IDF entered it, it doesn't even have windows yet) did not get married last summer because he had no place to live with his intended wife! Not to mention the noise at night, the entrance gate that no longer closes because a jeep dented it. (he has photos of the damage)Haawara--South--a regular checking that progresses more quickly than usual. The soldiers are hostile. Three men request our help. One is a resident of Nablus and two are from Ramallah and they have permits for work within Israel but were refused passage to Nablus because they don't have a permit for that.The two from Ramallah say that if they have a permit to enter Israel and passed examination with the Shabak why can't they visit their families? No reason. The soldiers simply refuse, but after they stand on line again the one who lives in Nablus and one of the brothers from Ramallah are allowed to pass. They took the ID of the other one from Ramallah for checking and after he waited for more than an hour he too passed.The soldiers prevent us from passing to the northern side. We call Offer who says that we are allowed and he will take care of it. After waiting for a half an hour in which Offer did not take care of it, we simply pass as the soldiers threaten us on the megaphone that they will call the Border Police to arrest us.During the time we waited on the southern side a group of Bratslev Hasidim arrived. They dashed from their cars with gitars, holy books and candy for the soldiers. It was awful to see them jumping and dancing and singing happy songs when one meter from them people are undergoing such suffering.Hawarra North-- Offer is tense and shouts a lot, pushing the people back but his checks are to the point. Here and there he passes groups of people without checking to ease the pressure. There are lots of people shuffling around in the filth in their holiday clothes. Because Offer is checking IDs without a stop he is unable to deal with problems that require the intervention of a person at his level of command. At the DCO we are told to turn to Offer and Offer says that he will deal with the problems when he gets a chance, when there is less pressure. This never happens and we find that when Offer is there, we have no one to turn to. He is a kind of "cover", a more humanitarian face that does not help one bit and does not enable us to seek help elsewhere.On the way home in Zaatra--the checking was very lax in all directions and at Itzhar intersection there no checkpoint at all.