Awarta, Beit Furik, Za'tara (Tapuah), Sun 15.6.08, Morning
Translator: Charles K.
7:25 Zeita: As usual, the road is blocked by cement cubes and an iron gate.
7:45 Za'tara/Tapuach:
10 cars from the west.
At the north-south checkpoint - a new group of air force reservists. 3 lanes open. 32 vehicles on line.
8:15 Beit Furik:
The parking lot is empty. Three cars waiting. We're told that the Palestinian police pulled 2000 cars from Beit Furik and Beit Dajan off the road, and a taxi stand opened in Beit Furik, inside the village.
8:40 Awarta
No trucks entering, three cars exiting.
The parking lot is crowded, full of activity. Lots of people going to Nablus, and sometimes there's a delay going through the turnstile.
Three lanes open at the turnstiles. 40-50 people waiting. A., the commander, tells us that the checkpoint was very crowded earlier.
9:35 An elderly women holding a month-old baby
in her arms, has been waiting ten minutes or more for her son to go through the turnstile.
9:38 The son comes through.
9:50 A Palestinian who lives in Awarta comes over to us for help: on the evening of 18.5.08 his ID card was taken from him in Shirat by a border policeman. He was told that he'd get it back in Na'alin. He went there, waited until 1 am and the ID wasn't found. Since then he's gone there a number of times, to no avail - the ID card isn't there. I ask T, the DCO representative, who's at the checkpoint, and he explains to the Palestinian that he has to get a new ID card. Unfortunately, that's really what he must do, which involves, in addition to having to run around from place to place, a significant expense.
10:00 We leave the checkpoint.
10:45 At the entrance to Burin/Yitzhar there's a Hummer carrying soldiers, facing the settlement.
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