Awarta, Beit Furik, Burin (Yitzhar), Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Mon 24.3.08, Afternoon

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Observers: 
Macky S. and Riva B.
Mar-24-2008
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Afternoon

Natanya translating.

13.25 Sha'ar Shomron.
Blue police and 5-6 police vehicles.  Zeita is still under punishment and the village is closed

Za'tara with two checking booths and pleasant reservists and a military policeman who astound us by offering us cold water. Cars going into Nablus are checked minimally according to the commander.
 

13.55 Beita is blocked. This is the story.

1. Micky F. phoned to ask us to check what was happening there.

2. When we got to Za'tara the commander asked what was happening and he said that it was to stop Israelis (occasional?) entering. On Saturday there had been problems between the Palestinian police and some other groups. Hana B. also reported this statement. .

3. The driver of a truck with vegetables spoke to us next to the barbed wire which blocks the entrance. Said that all the entrances were blocked and also that of Akraba and a makeshift road has been opened south of the village. He and other Palestinians with whom we spoke said that there had not been then and now Palestinian police in Beita. There had been however in Huwwara village.  Many Palestinians who passed spoke and complained. One said that he was taking people for dialysis in Nablus and yesterday they had not been treated. The market is working somehow but in a very small way. The driver of a wholesale truck of vegetables whom we met at the end of our shift said that the previous day all the bananas in his car had rotted and he had lost 8000 shekel.

4. Another version of the story was that there had been a competition between the marketplace in Nablus and the market in Beita and this causes problems.

14.10 We phoned the humanitarian centre to check the story. Until we left they did not give us an answer and when we phoned now and again to find out we were told that the captain was checking the situation with the army units.

14.20 We telephoned Noah P.  to try to phone Members of Parliament and to ask if it is really to stop the occasional Israeli going in and if that is a reason to keep a whole village under siege. It is not clear where the Palestinian police were or what caused the army to decide two days ago!!!! to  close the roads leading to Beita with barbed wire and to leave it so. But it is clear that the inhabitants of the village and the surroundings are suffering.  There are 10,000 people in Beita and the market in of the most important in the area.

14.35 Huwwara CP.
 2 young detainees whom the commander says are wanted by the GSS for whose answer he is waiting. 3 checking posts are working. Students said they waited 10-30 minutes. Few cars which pass quickly. Shoes squeak and have to be taken off and put on again. 3 times this happens and he can still smile at us when he passes at last.

At 15.15 Still no answer from the GSS.

At Beit Furik
 10 cars have been waiting they say for more than two hours and this included a doctor whose patients are waiting in Nablus and another 10 cars at the exit. The commander will not speak to us it seems because we spoke to the driver. We phone the centre to remind them about Beita and to send a representative of the DCO because of the long line. Pedestrains also complain of a wait of an hour and one grumbles to the clerk of the humanitarian centre. The x-ray device is not working and the goods are checked on the road. Soldiers say that that way the checking is faster. Some minutes after our phone call and maybe also because of our presence the line of cars decreases.


16.05  Opposite Yitamar is a Hummer and two soldiers.
At Awarta 5 cars and the parking area is pretty empty. 
Huwwara...the detaineesinfo-icon have been freed.
Burin is empty.
Za'tara 38 cars in both directions.