Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Sun 8.6.08, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
The eve of Shavuot - there is a curfew. An equation well-known beforehand: The Israelis celebrate and the restraints on the Palestinians are tightened even more.
07:35 Za'tara:
One car from the West. 53 vehicles from the norther, and on our way to Huwwara many more vehicles heading to the CP are seen. We reported to the humanitarian center, G. promised to check the matter.
07:50 Beit Furik:
There are three vehicles in the queue, but no people in the shed for the crossing people.
08:05 Awarta:
There are no trucks at the entrance, one truck at the exit from the village.
08:20 Huwwara:
About 40 people in the queue. Few cars gush forth from time to time both from Nablus and to Nablus.
As usual: A truck for checking, and a girl dog trainer with a dog, and the procedure of the unfastened belts and their girding at the exit.
A man who comes out of the CP answers our question and says he was about a quarter of an hour at the CP.
There is a lively pedestrian traffic to Nablus, from time to time there is a congestion near the turnstile, but it dissolves after a few moments.
We discover a detained young man in the detainees
' cell. He tells us that he is a "bingo". His mother, brother and sister stand at the security check shed, waiting for his release.
A., the CP commander tells us that the family is on its way to the funeral of the grandfather in Ramallah.
The young man was detained about half an hour ago because his ID number came up on the screen. A. shows concern, calls the base from time to time to find out whether they already have an answer regarding the lad. The mother, who has an aristocratic appearance and the children (a boy aged 15 and a girl aged 12) stand quietly, asking for our help, but accepting with understanding our helplessness. We try to imagine, without success, how we would have felt in their place, being detained thus, on our way to the funeral of grandfather about whose passing we learned in the early hours of the morning.
A., to whom we turn again and agin, doesn't reject the possibility that the checking of the lad's details is intentionally delayed as a measure of punishment.
09:00 -T. from the DCO arrives, he too cannot do anything to speed the checking up.
09:10 -The lad was released.
09:15 -A young man who came out of the CP and whom we address, reports that he has been at the CP for half an hour.
4 vehicles at the entrance to Nablus. A soldier checks them, while he all the while blowing up the chewing gum in his mouth to form balloons. But it has to be pointed out that the checking is quick.
09:30 -We leave the CP in order to drive the parents of a child from Huwwara who is hospitalized in the Reut institution at Yad Eliyahu.
09:50 Za'tara: there are 27 vehicles coming from the north, and 3 from the west.