Translation: Hanna K.

Habla 06:45 –

The gate is supposed to open at 06:30 but is still closed. A bus with children arrives and waits to enter. The soldiers  (only three) explain, as usual, that there are problems with the computers.
06:50 – The first five people enter for checking. Beyond the gate about 50 people are waiting…
06:55 – The driver of the children's bus returns from being checked and the bus enters without being checked by the soldiers.
Shouts and quarrels begin among those who wait beyond the gate, although the groups of five pass at the usual tempo… We know the quarrels from our previous visits. For some reason there is no person of authority around to put matters in order. The Palestinians press on the gate and the soldiers stand on the other side and shout to them to move away to reduce the pressure.  
07:00 – A second bus with children enters. Although the students are a bit older, the bus is not checked. Is there a shortage of manpower at the IDF?
07:10 – The spirits among the Palestinians have calmed down. Now there are only 30 people waiting.

The Eliyahu Crossing (Gate 109)
07:20 – The workers' enclosure is empty at this hour.

Falamiya

07:45 - conversation consisting of memories with an agriculturer from Kafr Gamal who rides on his bicyles to collect olives from his  trees which are on a higher lever. He is also a paver by profession, provides for 7 sons and daughters and speaks very good Hebrew. He is proud of his two sons who study at the Nablus university. Until 17 years ago he worked in Israel as a young man at a company which lets chairs on the Netanya beach and he longs for his Israeli friends and the sea.

Dir Sharaf
08:25 – We set out in the direction of Kafr Sur, and at the first intersection at the entrance to the village we turn eastwards on a road which is not marked on the map. When we arrive at a branching we turn to the left and go up to Safrin and from there on a steep descent until we reach road 557 and Nablus.
At the intersection with road 60 there is a military hummer with soldiers. They don't delay the traffic. We go on the road to Shave Shomron and Jenin to see whether everthing flows, and entered Dier Sharef. We wanted ti talk with Jamal from the grocery but he wasn't there.

Anabta
10:00 – The CP exists in all its splendor and accessories. We didn't see any soldier.

10:15 (We leave at Irtah(Sha'ar Efraim/

Tuesday, October 26, 2010, p.m.

Observers: Karen L., Gila P., Alma V. (new), Shoshi A. (reporting)

Translation: Galia S.

Habla

14:10 – The gate is open. In fact, these days the gate is always open at noon, from 13:00 to 14:15. No one passes. The soldiers are getting ready to close the gate. The Hummer is waiting for them.

We leave.

Eliyahu Gate

14:30 – Thin traffic in both directions.

14:45 – We are at the entrance to Hirbet Isla. Karen has made an appointment to meet with Abu Acram, the head of the village, but since we are early, he doesn't answer the phone. We go to the Agricultural Gate through the dirt road but we find it closed. On the other side of the patrol road five Palestinians are sitting waiting for the gate to open. It usually opens for 15 minutes only.

15:00 - We meet Abu Acram.

Hirbet Isla

Three families, about 1000 residents, live in the village. Up to the age of 9, the children go to school in the village. Later they are taken by taxis to Azzun. The entire village has about 1000-1250 acres of land, part of which is in the village itself and another part – on the other side of the fence.

Abu Acram has seven children, five of whom didn't get permits to pass through the Agricultural Gate to work their lands. The two sons who got permits work in Israel and can help in the olive picking only at weekends.

Ninety percent of the village people who asked for passage permits got affirmative answers, and he has no idea why his sons were refused permits by the Shabak [Israeli General Security Service]. What he says is that if they did something wrong, they have to be prosecuted. Karen asked if they have spoken to the committee dealing with and they say that Tusia Cohen, a lawyer from Qdumim, has done it on their behalf but received no explanation, either.

His son, Muhammad, used to work in a ladder factory in Alfei Menashe, but three years ago his permit was taken by soldiers at the checkpoint and since then he hasn't been working.

Abu Acram asks us to help him get the permit. All the details he gives us will be passed to Tami C. and (or) Sylvia P.

According to him, a new settlement called Giv'at Tal is being set up near Alfei Menashe on lands stolen from the people of the village.

06:40  Habla

40 people waiting on line.  They’re inspected in groups of five.  The Palestinians are restless, quarreling, and the Palestinian steward has trouble keeping order.  Two reservists are at the checkpoint.  The bus taking children to school arrives at 06:50.  The driver gets out to be inspected.  They tell him that the children must also get off to be inspected.  Nurit calls the DCO to complain.  She’s told that the children don’t have to get off to be inspected, and the soldiers will be informed of this.  Another bus arrives, and the story is repeated.  The older girls get off to be inspected.  An additional group of soldiers comes to the checkpoint because of the confusion that has been created.  There’s a female MP among them who calms down the Palestinians.  The bus with the children is still waiting and Nurit again calls the DCO who promises to be at the checkpoint tomorrow because the reservists don’t know the rules.  Fifteen minutes later the buses go through without the children having been inspected.  We should note that the drivers and the buses go through the checkpoint every morning – always the same children and the same drivers.

07:35  Eliyahu gate

.There are 20 laborers standing on line

08:00  Jit junction

An army jeep stationed at the junction.  Two soldiers stand outside.

08:30  Deir Sharaf

We sat in the café next to Jamal’s grocery story and the locals told us what they need: help picking olives on the 25-27 of October in the village’s fields on the other side of the fence next to Shavey Shomron.

(The olive harvest coalition should be contacted.)  In addition, the wild boars that were brought to the wadi near the village cause damage and frighten the residents.

Even at 7 in the morning you can find children sheltering in cars in fear of the boars which are still wandering around – according to Sami, and requests help from the Israeli agricultural authorities.

There’s a similar problem at Kifl Hars.

We continued to Beit Iba to see where the checkpoint once stood.  Only the concrete cubes remain.

09:00  Shavey Shomron

The checkpoint is empty.  Two jeeps parked facing each other.

09:10  Anabta

The checkpoint is empty, no soldiers, except in the guard tower.

09:20  Jubara

The soldiers ask for our ID cards.

09:25  Irtach

Empty

Summary
Only lately have the media begun to call attention to the settlements as "the front line" of the Occupation. It's a complex system - profitable too - what with all the barriers, barbed wire and checkpoints built, rebuilt and taken down, invariably at or below settlements; segregated roads, constructed and constantly reasphalted, tunnels shaped under them for those who should never be allowed above ground, the Separation Barrier and/or Wall punching its way through Palestinian fields and olive groves. But at no time of year is the presence of settlements and settlers, their numbers exponentially multiplied since the Oslo agreement, so much in evidence as during the olive harvest when recurrent and systematic violence is heightened in the context of the olive harvest, and intimidation and denial of access become the purview of settlers as well as the army.

Habla Gate 1392
13:00 -- the gates are opened in desultory fashion, by reservists, one of whom carries his gun at the ready, who refuse to respond to our greetings or questions. Horses, people, bicycles, and trucks bearing nursery trees make up the many waiting on both sides of the Separation Barrier. A truck overloaded with products bound to or from a nursery has its cab thoroughly checked, and the two soldiers mosey around its sides, taking their sweet time. As the driver passes us, he leans over and hands us three guavas!

13:15 -- the school bus, this one bearing the Bedouin primary schoolboys back to their encampment outside the settlement of Alfei Menashe tries to get the kids home. But, no, the soldiers must get into the bus, check the ID of the driver and another adult inside, then make the driver open up all the luggage compartments of the bus, three on each side, as they peer intently into them.  The girls' bus comes by ten minutes later.

13: 30 Qalqiliya
A random check today of the former checkpoint lays bare the true face of Occupation. A police car in place, alongside a soldier, and the policeman checks a vehicle, coming from Qalqiliya with Israeli (yellow) license plates as many others of that ilk make their way out of the city.
Above, Zufim continues to show the true face of the settlement freeze: continuous building.

14:10 Mitzpe Yishai
This is a "newer" sub division of Kedumim where yet more private Palestinian land has been taken over by a company called "Kedumim 3000," another example -- says the website -- of an "expansive and flourishing neighborhood."

We have earlier found out that lending a hand to Rabbis for Human Rights, helping Palestinian farmers harvest their olives in "peace" would not be necessary after all, and that the morning "shift" there had trouble from the army, not the settlers. As is not unusual, a "closed military area" was announced. Our curiosity aroused, we still make our way to "explore" and find, on top of the steep hill, facing Kedumim, an unmanned checkpoint, with a barrier across it. Beyond, a bulldozer can be seen at work. Plenty of settler cars make their way out of Mitzpe Yisahi and wait at the sophisticated barrier with its metal obstacles that ascend and descend in the middle of the road, through some magic, or unseen hand until the barrier arm is opened up.  

Jit Junction
Another police car at the side of the junction, and a stopped car. We nevertheless make our way up to the village of Sarra and use the beautifully paved road, given by the "American people to the Palestinian people," a road which sweeps up into Nablus with a turning off, plunging down to Beit Iba, the former checkpoint which was, in the life of MachsomWatch observers several times built and rebuilt, but today, brings to mind the dusty back set from a Hollywood western.

Deir Sharaf
Since much of the olive harvest is already over, the olive press is working hard, filling the ugly yellow jerrycans with the beautiful smell of the green-gold liquid -- the first pressing of this year's olives.

Anabta
By now, no surprises: the checkpoint is manned, and we see soldiers from afar, but no line of vehicles waiting to be checked or not.

Jubara
We are afforded the same treatment here as the school bus at Habla, the luggage compartment, only one, has to be opened by us, but all four doors of the car opened by the military policeman, watched by a soldier clutching his gun tightly, twin image of the soldier pointing his gun at Palestinians crossing the Separation Barrier at Habla earlier in the afternoon.  

Natanya translating.

Jubara 14.45
 The commander arrived and without questions or explanations opened the gate for us.
14.50 Gate 754 (the Childrens’ gate).

Few people passed. When we tried to go through to Sur and the surroundings the soldiers made a phone call to see if they should let us through and received a negative answer.  We had to go around through Jubara.
Abu Hatam came to greet us and was disappointed that we do not smoke and that we had no cigarettes to offer him.
15.10 Izbat Shufa.  We went through the Avne Khefetz (a settlement)  to the checkpoint which divides the village of Izbat Shufa from the village of Shufa. People were waiting for a taxi to their destination. We tried to speak to the DCo but there was no answer even though the same morning there had been and it had been promised that they would deal with the opening of the gate at least during the period of the olive harvest.  The matter has not been dealt with and it is worthwhile to check.

15.25 Anabta. There was no a single soldier at the checkpoint –it seems that all were in the sentry posts. The traffic flowed.
From there we went to Deir Sharaf. Life there seemed completely normal. We spoke to the grocery owner who said that all was well.

16.20 Azzun – the entrance is open.
 

16.45 Habla. We met Omer who asked us to deal with matters regarding work permits. At the checkpoint 40 people were waiting. They went in groups of 5.

17.15 We left

Northern route

06:26 

 Habla gate – the soldiers are present, the gate is closed.  A blue and red flag waves in the breeze (the brigade flag?).  The gate opens at 06:30.  The first five laborers pass through in one minute.  The bus with the children arrived at 06:50, and immediately afterwards the second bus.  The first bus crosses at 06:55 and the second follows.  According to the night watchman at the plant nursery, the gate in the new fence at Ras-Atiya, which we know is seasonal, is closed and there’s no entry to the olive groves; as of now, no permits are being issued.  We drove there to see.

07:05  

 Gate 1360 in the new fence at Ras-Atiya.  It is, in fact, closed. 

As we drive we see Palestinians riding donkeys, in carts and also on foot carrying sticks and blankets on the way to harvest olives.  We see people picking olives in many of the plots. 

We drove to Jayyus and continued to the northern gate near Falamya, arriving at 07:44 – the gate is open.  A Palestinian from Jayyus who spoke English very well and a Norwegian volunteer in his 50’s sat off to the side.  The Palestinian’s family has land on the other side of the gate and he has a permit to cross.  The Norwegian helps with the olive harvest, and lacks a crossing permit.  He’s not a member of any organization.  After telephoning for instructions, the soldiers don’t let him cross.  We tried to help by contacting the DCO and theארב"ל– without success.  The Palestinian finally crossed and the Norwegian rode with us to Jayyus, to the olive grove of another friend of his.  Leaving Jayyus we stopped at an olive press belong to two brothers who proudly showed us their new machines that arrived only yesterday from Italy.  We dipped a pita in the new oil and tasted it.  Tasty!

09:06   

Shvut Ami – An army jeep stopped and the soldiers climbed the hill.  Are they looking for “hilltop youths” in action?

Kafr Sara – the road is open.

Deir Sharaf – The road to Jenin is open.  We drove up to Sebastya, which was blocked by a steel gate.  Police and army at the junction.  It’s not clear what’s going on.  A policeman who came over and asked what we were doing didn’t answer our questions.  The owner of the café and bakery in Deir Sharaf said that the road to Sebastya is open, but from time to time it’s closed.

10:00  Anabta checkpoint is deserted, no soldiers. 

06:26  Habla gate – the soldiers are present, the gate is closed.  A blue and red flag waves in the breeze (the brigade flag?).  The gate opens at 06:30.  The first five laborers pass through in one minute.  The bus with the children arrived at 06:50, and immediately afterwards the second bus.  The first bus crosses at 06:55 and the second follows.  According to the night watchman at the plant nursery, the gate in the new fence at Ras-Atiya, which we know is seasonal, is closed and there’s no entry to the olive groves; as of now, no permits are being issued.  We drove there to see.
07:05  Gate 1360 in the new fence at Ras-Atiya.  It is, in fact, closed.
As we drive we see Palestinians riding donkeys, in carts and also on foot carrying sticks and blankets on the way to harvest olives.  We see people picking olives in many of the plots.
We drove to Jayyous and continued to the northern gate near Falamiya, arriving at 07:44 – the gate is open.  A Palestinian from Jayyous who spoke English very well and a Norwegian volunteer in his 50’s sat off to the side.  The Palestinian’s family has land on the other side of the gate and he has a permit to cross.  The Norwegian helps with the olive harvest, and lacks a crossing permit.  He’s not a member of any organization.  After telephoning for instructions, the soldiers don’t let him cross.  We tried to help by contacting the DCO and the International Organization– without success.  The Palestinian finally crossed and the Norwegian rode with us to Jayyous, to the olive grove of another friend of his.  Leaving Jayyous we stopped at an olive press belong to two brothers who proudly showed us their new machines that arrived only yesterday from Italy.  We dipped a pita in the new oil and tasted it.  Tasty!
09:06  Shvut Ami – An army jeep stopped and the soldiers climbed the hill.  Are they looking for “hilltop youth” in action?
Kafr Sara – the road is open.
Deir Sharaf – The road to Jenin is open.  We drove up to Sebastya, which was blocked by a steel gate.  Police and army at the junction.  It’s not clear what’s going on.  A policeman who came over and asked what we were doing didn’t answer our questions.  The owner of the café and bakery in Deir Sharaf said that the road to Sebastya is open, but from time to time it’s closed.
10:00  Anabta checkpoint is deserted, no soldiers.

  Habla

06:55 – The gate, which is supposed to open at 06:45, is still closed.  Two buses filled with children wait to enter the village.  About 50 Palestinians wait to exit behind the inner fence.

The soldiers standing next to the closed gates explain to us that the fault lies with the Palestinians:  they made trouble at the farther gates that opened earlier.  Some came to the wrong gates and some had the wrong permits.  Others argued and got into fights and delayed the opening of those gates.  That’s why the soldiers arrived late to Habla and the female MP’s who do the inspections still haven’t arrived.

07:07 – The MP’s arrive.  The first outer gate opens.

07:15 – The first bus approaches, after the driver went to and returned from the inspection booth.  Two soldiers enter the bus, walk through it and get off.  Outside they also check the baggage compartment. 

07:25 – The second bus moves and undergoes the same procedure, and we ask ourselves why the IDF cares who enters the Palestinian area of Habla?

The first five residents are inspected, the second five are waiting and there are already arguments among the others.

Eliyahu crossing (Agricultural gate 109)

07:35 – Two Palestinians wait there.

 Jayyus north

07:45 – The gate is empty.  Johan, the ecumenical from the USA, says everyone went through without problems.  We had a chance to speak to him and hear about his experiences during the past three months.  He said the soldiers were usually polite.  We also met two reservists, one with a Shakespearean beard that was impossible to ignore.  Johan says the number of exit permits for agricultural work on land belonging to Palestinians declined from 400 last year to 300 this year.  He mentioned Abu Is’am , an important public figure in the village whose permit was cancelled after many years.  They were told he’d become a security risk.Before the gate was closed, Fa’iz abu Na’il and his children returned from the fields with a pail of black olives, and he told us that hundreds of his trees had been cut down to pave the security road. 08:15  The soldiers close the gate but promise to open it for any latecomers.  But they drive to the southern gate; we also do so, on dirt roads, guided by Johan. 

Jayyus south  08:30 – Again we drive through the village, this time southward, and take a route where the security fence was to have been erected, and many olive trees had been cut down.  The fence was subsequently moved, and Johan showed us the shed erected by the landowner in a new olive grove he’s cultivating lovingly and with dedication.

The soldiers from the northern gate arrived at the same time we did.  An elder Palestinian passed with his donkey.  Then Stella, from the Ecumenicals, who was to have been at this gate, arrived and says that the mother of the Palestinian we had just seen is at home, dying, and she’d been asked by neighbors and members of the family to visit her.  The Ecumenicals have become part of the village.
 

 Falamiya  09:05 – Mustafa comes back from the gate with a pail full of olives.  A returning tractor pulls a wagon loaded with lovely guavas.  We see large areas of za’atar, but there was no longer anyone we could ask what they do with such a big amount.

Sebastya

10:10 – After driving through Kafr Tsur and Beit Lid, we got on the road to Deir Sharaf, and then north toward Shavei Shomron.  We looked for the checkpoint next to Sebastya.  We saw two concrete cubes by the side of the road, but the road was open.  Soldiers stood only next to the entrance to the army camp, but we didn’t see them stopping anyone. 

‘Anabta

10:25  We entered, drove around in the checkpoint area and left.  We didn’t see any soldiers; not in the tower either.

 10:40 – Te’enim crossingNo lines of people waiting to exit. What we did see, in Israeli territory:We saw an army Hummer parked facing east on the right side of the road, only a few meters from the junction with Route 444, opposite Taybe.  A civilian car with an Israeli license plate stood facing it, and four or five Arab villagers standing alongside with two soldiers checking their IDs.  We tried to understand what was going on, drove to the junction, turned around and came back.  The Hummer had disappeared, the civilian car was still there and the villagers climbed up the hill carrying sticks to harvest the olives.Is it possible that the army will stop an Israeli car in Israeli territory because the passengers might be there illegally?  Isn’t that the job of the police? 

Habla, Irtah, Sunday 19.09.10 pm E only

Observers: Alix W., Susan L. (reporting)

Summary

A few years ago, it was problematic to use the term “apartheid.” No longer, so
maybe it’s time to employ “Bantustanization” to describe what we monitor in the
OPT. Ariel Sharon believed (so Akiva Eldar has written) 'the Bantustan plan was the
most suitable solution to [Israel's] conflict.' Yet Israeli leaders rarely speak publicly
of Bantustans, instead using euphemisms with which we have become familiar,
like 'separation,' 'disengagement' or 'convergence.' While emphasizing their goal of
a 'two-state solution,' they continue to support construction of the Separation Barrier,
Jewish-only settlements, etc. In fact, settlement construction had proceeded with
little hindrance since Netanyahu announced the freeze in November of 2009. “You’d
have to be blind, an idiot, or a member of the Yesha Council of settlements to use the
term ‘freeze’ to describe the real estate situation in Judea and Samaria” (Akiva Eldar).
Stay tuned to see what happens after next week when the supposed “freeze” comes to
an end…. but, at the same time, we should remember – as we saw today – that the so-
called authorities find other ways to “separate” people(s), particularly at agricultural
gates where the soldiers’ rule is law, the Geneva Conventions and international
humanitarian laws well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
(UNCRC) be damned!

13:40-15:30 Habla, Gate 1392-3
On the far, Palestinian side, a bus is already waiting with a load of school kids and is
soon after joined by a second one. A man complains of the hundreds of people here at
the gate each morning, but now there are only about 15-20 desirous of returning home
after a long morning’s work.
No soldiers in sight, although the announced opening time is 13:45. They finally
arrive in a Hummer at 14:00 and take their sweet time getting organized. This is
exacerbated by the surely deliberately slow method of opening the padlocked gates.
Admittedly, the decidedly chubby soldier by the gate where we stand is surely
handicapped in not being able to find the correct key for this particular padlock….
Meanwhile time is marching on, but not for the Occupier who couldn’t care less that
it is very hot, that there are huge busloads of children waiting and waiting some more,
or for the female face of the Occupation which is personified by a soldier, leaning
comfortably, legs splayed in front of her, sitting on the side wall of the concrete
soldiers’ “position,” smoking , chatting on the phone or intent on studying something
which is either a crossword or Sudoko.

14:05 -- although the gates are, theoretically, open, one of the series of gates on each
side is always left closed, and a soldier, it seems, is now employed to handle this
newer aspect of the IDF’S mission which includes opening it a bit, then closing it
some more. A game?

14:10 -- the sergeant commander seems to be on duty, gun pointing at each
Palestinian who walks towards the concrete checking booth for computer checking.

14:15 -- at this point, the military policewoman shouts, and the other soldiers
begin to run, having locked all the gates they had so recently opened. Nobody runs
immediately to the Hummer they’ve arrived in, however. No, there’s more “balagan”
(muddle) to this operation than the military manoeuvre we are supposed to be
witnessing. We recall that last week, the gates were all locked as, we were told, there
had been an “incident.” So, what is the story this week? We don’t know, the soldiers
refuse to talk to us, and the Hummer, with all aboard, drives off in a whoosh, leaving
two busloads of schoolkids, many vehicles, of all kinds, on both sides, and many
more Palestinian workers ditched, abandoned or what you will.
The MW observers go into action, making phone calls to whomever we think should
be apprised of the situation, and whoever should know of the shockingly cavalier way
in which the Occupier behaves insofar as human beings, in this case, many primary
schoolchildren, are concerned.
The phone calls bring little relief, “they (the soldiers, we are told) had to go,”
promises are made, but no change in the facts on the ground. More phone calls, more
waiting. A horse whinnies, and a man says that there will never be peace since “they
want balagan (muddle) and get it.”

14:40 -- after an uncounted number of phone calls, a Hummer finally arrives, bringing
back all the soldiers who were meant to arrive at 13:45 and leave at 15:00. The same
chubby soldier struggles with the padlock on the gate nearest where we stand, lets
the woman MP try on his sunglasses, and the “game” continues. Or, is it policy? A
policy to make the Palestinians decide to give up, to leave, so that Alfei Menashe and
settlements of its ilk can expand more and more? If that is the case the Occupier has
no understanding of “sumud.”

A contractor’s van and a jeep have joined the soldiers, and two men, contractors,
begin to clamber up on the roof of the concrete checking booth, or playing around
with the door.

15:10 -- one and a half hours after their arrival the two school buses pass through the
gates, as if participating in an obstacle course, since only half a gate is ever open,
although the bus is Egged size. One bus contains boys, the other, girls in striped
school uniform smocks. The latter smile and wave shyly. Their mothers must be
anxiously waiting for them….

15:15 -- after a horse passes, the gates are again all closed; three soldiers, including
the newly arrived captain, confer in the middle of the Separation Barrier. Nothing
moves, again. Half the time, the gates are half closed, and when open, held by a
soldier. This is a high tech army….

15:20 -- a cart with hay, a truck bearing trees bound to or from a plant nursery
make their way to the other side, but the pedestrians are the last ones to be allowed
to cross. The woman MP calls out, “Five at a time,” as the chubby soldier sips
water from his army pouch as the Palestinian workers wait -- and wait some more.

The one saving grace is that after this last group of pedestrians, there are no more
would be crossers to the other side.

Route 55
At Jit, army and police with army truck and civilian large truck stop and talk to a

civilian: the driver?

Deir Sharaf, Anabta as usual and at Jubara, as we make our way out of the OPT, the
soldier looks at us, at the MW flag and says “Yuck” very, very loudly.

16:45 Irtah
A steady stream of returning workers, and although it seems that only one checking
booth is open, there appears to be no checking, as everybody passes quickly and
smoothly to the other side.