Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Sun 27.1.08, Morning
Translation: Ruth F.
7:50 Za'tara:
Two cars were waiting from the west. A station wagon cab was parked by the side of the road.
We approached it. The driver said there were no problems, they were only inspecting the IDs of the passengers.
From the north there were only 2 manned inspection posts. A' the checkpoint commander, told us that he didn't have enough man power to open another lane.
While heading to Huwwara we counted 25 cars.
8:00 On our way to Beit Furik, by the turn to the DCO, we encountered a blockage. There was an unidentified object on the road, and police robot was handling it. After we had stood there for a while, and since from a far the objected seemed to be nothing more then a bag of clothes or something of the sort, and also was it seemed that they were to released the blockage soon, we turned our car and headed to Huwwara.
8:30 Huwwara:
About 20 people were at the turnstiles. Many people were heading into Nablus. About 15 people were crowded by the only turnstile, and after several minutes the place was empty and had remained so until another group of people had arrived.
T' from the DCO approached us. He said that it was rather busy in the morning and that there were many people heading to Nablus, he arranged that they pass from the western side of the checkpoint.
The soldiers made sure that we didn't pass the white line that had lately become reddish (but they should at least let it dry).
The Palestinian that came out of the turnstile came to us and said: "What kind of a reality is this!"
9:20 It was quiet at the checkpoint, nothing special to report. We left.
9:30 Beit Furik: 25 cars were heading to Nanblus. The drivers told us that the soldiers closed the checkpoint from 6:30 to 8:00 AM. They said that it was because of settlers that were heading to Joseph's Tomb, even though the settlers didn't actually pass through the checkpoint. A Beit Furik resident we met later on, told us that he was told that a settler did pass through this checkpoint.
We tried talking to the checkpoint commander. He rudely told us to go. When we promised to stand behind the virtual line and asked that he come to us as we had a question, he said: "I'm not your buddy and I haven't got anything to say to you".
About 20 people were in the turnstiles.
A truck and a cab were parked by the inspection post. The truck driver told us that his sons were with him in the truck and that they got into fight with the cab passengers about who was first in line, the soldiers put them in the cell. They had been there for two hours. Since we couldn't speak to the officer we called the humanitarian center. We asked that they also find out about the blockage at the checkpoint that morning. We spoke to K from the Center- the Palestinians were released from the cell.
9:50 The turnstiles became empty. A few people were heading to the checkpoint. We left.
10:00Awarta: There were no cars on either side.
The Palestinian that is always at the checkpoint told us that it had been closed during the morning for over an hour, until 8:00 AM. He said that it was because of the Braslavs that wanted to visit Josef's Tumb. He added that they entered through Alon Moree and that they didn't even pass through Awarta.
We left the checkpoint. On our way back there were 10 car in line at Za'tara.
We told Raya about the blockage at Beit Furik and Awarta on behalf to the Braslavs, so that she report that to the media.