Hizma, Atara

Hizma, Atara, 5.8.2006, Saturday morningObservers: Varda G. Chava H. Vivi Z. Hana B. (reporting), Natanya translatingThe wall at Hizma is progressing fast and seems as it if will be closed in the coming days. The road for the settlers and the road for the Palestinians is ready and checking areas for the Palestinians are ready. At the entrance to the checkpoint in a northerly direction is a yellow sign asking for ambulances of the Red Cross to be given precedence. On it has been written by hand and in red “road for terrorists in ambulances.” At the checking area our ids were demanded . We asked if the commanders had demanded to erase the sign and as a reaction we got a shrug of the shoulders and a “What really.”Atara. We arrived at 7.30 and counted 49 cars. 11 cars at the checkpoint. Border police and reservists. A group of young people from Qalqiliya who work at a building site in Ramallah tried in vain to pass. They tried to find bypasses and let us remember that this is a conquered population who are simply trying to pass from one of their own cities to another. From the direction of the village of Atara were 35 cars. The most important thing to the border police was order and discipline. A car with a sick man lying on the back seat tried to bypass the line. The border policeman went to the car, stuck his hand in and pulled out the keys which went into his own pocket. Our intervention helped this specific driver but this phenomenon of “education” has not passed from the world. One of the soldiers has a little computer on which he notes the names of those entering and in the evening it will be checked if they have gone home (and once more it must be noted that this is in the heart of the occupied territories). The soldiers are very frightened. Time and again we heard them saying “Come with me. I am frightened to go alone.” Their behavior is very harsh and very humiliating. After many complaints a reserve lieutenant who said he was the commander and everything that he had to say was what we had heard time and again "security".