Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Thu 31.7.08, Morning
Translation: Ruth F.
6:25- A police checkpoint with spicks was clocking one lane of the road a couple of meters before the entrance to Samaria.
6:40- The passage to Marda was open, and the one leading to Zeita was closed by cement bricks.
6:45 Za'atara Junction-
There were no cars from the west. The traffic from Nablus wasn't heavy either and there wasn't a line of cars. There were reserve soldiers from the armor unit.
7:05- Huwwara-
The parking lot wasn't full. At the exit from Nablus were about 40 people. Two inspection posts were activated and were working fast. For some reason those heading out were smiling and appeared to be tranquil. We didn't notice men taking their belts of and putting them back again after passing.
Maybe that in itself is enough reason for smiling.
There was an x-ray machine, a dog trainer and someone form the DCO
7:40- Awarta- There was hardly any traffic. Two or three trucks that were heading to Nablus passed quickly. There was a commercial vehicle full of little chicks that transferred it's merchandise to another truck by the back to back method.
8:00- Beit Fuirk-
8 cars were waiting to pass.
The commander was hostile towards us, as they usually are in this checkpoint ("Everything was great until you showed up..."). A young man on bicycles was waiting in the car lane. He was a student from Beit Dajan and each day he passes there on his bikes. Six cars had passed but he was still waiting. Esti approached the commander and asked why he wouldn't let the student pass, he shrugged his shoulders -" Just like that!!" After a couple of minutes she asked once again what was going on. The commander said that he wouldn't let him pass because we were there. As we were walking towards the car away from the checkpoint, the student was permitted to pass!!
8:30- Huwwara-
A young man from Jerico who is denied passage by the GSS came to us. At Jerico they told him to come to Huwwara to find out what was his status. He arrived on the day before but only 5 people were allowed to enter, he wasn't one of them. We called the DCO and learned that the DCO soldiers were on a two day trip from which they had only returned on the day before, and there for they had limited manpower and received only few cases (obviously we didn't know what the criterions were). The DCO sent him back to the GSS offices which were working as usual.
We waited for A. who has a two year old childe with cancer who has been given treatment for a while at Tel Ha'Shomer. He had a large bag with smaller bags in it, they had name tags on them. These were artifacts that were to be given to a family from Gaza that had to spend long periods of time at the hospital as they didn't have an ability to head back to Gaza and then return for treatment.
Za'tara - (on the way back) - There were only a few cars in line from Nablus.