South Hebron Hills

South Hebron Hills, Tuesday 10/10/06, AM Watchers: Michal, Z., Hagit, B. (Reporting) 06:30 - 09:00 AMOur time is an hour behind the Palestinian time, which is an hour earlier.Closure, no one around at Sansana checkpoint, the name of which was changedto "Meytar". A few workers are coming to work at the checkpoint itself.Ramadin checkpoint: The village is divided. Border Police soldiers. Two Palestinian cars pass with nobody stopping them. Why is this checkpointneeded at all?Road 60: No sudden apprehending on the road. All the blockings are up again. New earth mounds are blocking the way to the road everywhere. There is a very little traffic and all the pillboxes are manned. Sheep Junction: An army vehicle is standing there but is not stopping the traffic. We could not see soldiers. Were they sleeping in the car? Road 317: A checkpoint at the entrance to Yatir forest. 3 soldiers arestanding with a detainee who had no ID. He was trying to find work in Beer Sheba. He will not be released before 3 hours go by. The checkpoint now includes a new pillbox and a yellow gate. The pillbox is not yet manned and is right on the fence. When I went down to take a picture, the cameras caught me.We continued our way towards the next checkpoint. Kongo at the entrance to the city of Arad. At this location, a big, elaborate passageway was built. The soldiers occupying this spot (from an anti-aircraft unit, are detaining 7 people who came in a car with a fake yellow license plate. These are iron dealers who tried to take fence parts for iron. All are with no IDs and will be released after 3 hours. They are not observing Ramadan and are smoking and eating. The soldiers are giving them water and their breakfast leftovers. The soldiers take our IDs. We are not allowed to drive on this road. We are detained for 15 minutes and are released with a warning not to drive or take pictures on that road. Without Hebron, the emptiness is saddening and seems almost natural.