Za'tara (Tapuah)

Translation: Hanna K.

Winter in the Territories: Everything is frozen, beginning with the puddles at the sides of the road and ending with the Peace Negtotiations.

06:30 There is no checking of the Border Police at the Samaria Gate. When we shall return they will be at their posts.

The entrances to Marda and Zeita are empty, the blockade at Zeita continues.

06:45 Za'tara/Tapuach Junction:
There are 14 cars coming from the west waiting, and about 20 coming from Huwwara. In a short while the queue becomes even longer and the officer opens another checking track.
The CP soldiers have again been changed. This time they are cadets of the squad commanders training school. They behave politely towards us.

07:05 At the Yitzhar/Burin CPs there is no checking.

At Huwwara:
The pedestrian queue at the moment is short. The Okez (The dogs unit)  girl soldiers are absent and the "Gideonites" (a unit in the IDF)  are doing their bit. The DCO representative maintains a relaxed atmosphere and a heating stove. We saw the red line but nobody prevented us from going around the aread. We found a leaflet that had been handed out to the soldiers by the "blue-white" ladies (please see attached).There is nobody in the solitary confinement and in the detention shed there is a group of Palestinians waiting for their friends in the queue and taking refuge from the freezing cold.

07:35 Beit Furik:
About a dozen cars are waiting at the exit of the village. Very quickly there is pressure in the queue behind the pedestrian turnstiles, which reaches beyond the shed. We reported to the DCO in the hope that they would open another checking queue.
The new checking process for cars goes on, and each driver has to leave the car with his papers and march in the direction of the soldiers. As a result the queue of those waiting on the other side of the road becomes bigger.

08:30 Awarta
The parking lot is deserted, there are two trucks at the exit from Nablus. We ate (and bought) wonderful olives.

08:40 Huwwara:
There is a large number of people leaving the town waiting to be checked. Wrapped babies make their way from one parking lot to the other, carried by a parent.  

At the Yitzhar/Burin junction there is no activity.

Tapuach/Za'tara junction: 20 cars coming from Huwwara are waiting and 20 coming from the west, including a learners car which thus wastes the time of the lesson.
Contrary to the Palestinian and the soldiers we have a choice and we flee the cold.

Translation: Rachel B.

We set out rather late after waiting for Yael who was on her way to Tel Aviv and could not arrive because of a problem with the train. We left without her.

On our way we saw that the openings in the fence around the village of Marda which lead to the road, were blocked by the army with barbed wire fencing, except, of course, for the main entrance to the village.  At Zeita the passage is blocked too.

Za'tara Junction: 8:50 AM

There is a line of 10 cars going from west to east and about 30 cars going from the  north to the south.

Huwwara: 9:00 MA

There are fewer than 20 people waiting in line., We left when there were on 10 people waiting.  The atmosphere was very calm, possibly because it's already late in the day.

Before we left a young man approached us, a taxi driver, and complained (in a very organized, logical manner in Hebrew) about abuse by the soldiers  of the residents of Beit Dajan who pass through the "Great Jordan Valley Checkpoint" (that was his term - we could not get a precise name from him).  These villagers have plots in the Jordan Valley that they have to get to through the checkpoint to cultivate.  The religious soldiers harass them, send them from place to place, subject them to aggressive questioning and repeated checks for no apparent reason. They treat them with contempt and humiliate them (even the elderly ones) and look for excuses for confrontations with them.  He told us that this has been going on for several days but was afraid to give us his phone number.  Finally he agreed to give me his phone number and I have it and, of course, will pass it along to whoever takes it upon themselves to investigate this situation.

Beit Fureik: 9:40 AM

There are 12 cars waiting at the entrance to Nablus and a few at the exit.  The checkpoint commander takes the initiative to talk to us: a conversation/argument that can be summarized as: ‘Why don't you bring cakes and hamburgers from Tel Aviv for the soldiers to show that we are not only here to support the Palestinians but also to support our soldiers."  There were about 10 soldiers there.  We asked them to open a second station to check people through to reduce the waiting time.  They, indeed, did open a second lane in each direction but the overall atmosphere was still of laziness and hostility towards the Palestinians.

Za'atra; 10:15 AM

There are 45 cars waiting in the lane heading south and only one station operating.  The District Coordination Office representative explains to us that the soldiers went off for breakfast... this in response to our question about when additional stations will be opened.  Before we had left the checkpoint, a second station was, indeed, opened.

Natanya translating.

12.35 We go down to the road to Bruqin and Kafr ad Dik so as to see if the blockage has been removed and a man tells us that the day that Bush arrived in Israel it had been taken away. 

At Ariel there are no soldiers at the hitching post and many people waiting for a lift.
 

12.50 Tammie C. had asked us to speak to M. from Marda. The western gate which had been the main one has been blocked for 8 years to cars but people could still get to their lands or the main road. But last Sunday it was blocked by barbed wire which does not allow people through at all. Someone has torn a part on the side and there people go through. M. says that there is an agreement with the army about opening another gate in the centre of the fence which encircles the village so that the agricultural workers can get to the land but this was not done. We will send photos.  IN the meantime this affects the framework of their lives and we should follow this up.

13.25 Za'tara. 3 cars and no detainees.
 

Opposite the entrance to Beita is a police jeep protecting a water tank?

13.35 Beit Furik is quite.
The drivers at the parking lot say it is a good day. One of them says the checkpoint opens late and causes problems. We phoned the humanitarian centre and asked them that the hour of opening be fixed  and not later then 5.30 am.

At the entrance to the checkpoint we met the DCO representative, Y. going towards a taxi with a young girl and one of the soldiers. The girl was ill.

Pedestrians pass quickly and cars leaving Nablus are quickly checked. No delays.

14,15 Awarta.
An ambulance enters Nablus and two wait to leave. 5 trucks at the exit.

14.25 Huwwara 
Two peole with two goats which they are holding by their ears wait next to the hut at the car lane. They cannot go through the pedestrian lane with the goats. The soldiers are in doubt but the DCO decides to send them through immediately. S. asks. Do you know how much they cost? Another asks...alive or dead.

One man says he has waited two hours and another says 15 minutes.  The humanitarian lane is full of life. R. from the DCO  gets to work and immediately the line passes quickly. He says that the universities are now open and therefore there are more people.

Only two lines and we look for the commander Y. to find out why and by the time we do there are three lies open. It turned out that one of the soldiers had been taken ill and it took a while for the change of manpower to kick in. 3 dogtrainers arrive and one immediately goes into action. A private car is then checked for 20 minutes. The passengers stand a way off but they are not told to turn their faces away while the dog checks.

15.00 A taxi arrives and the passengers are sent to the x-ray. 3 doors are opened and the dog and three soldiers check for 5 minutes and the car goes on its way. Most cars are checked for 5 minutes.

There is a detainee, His father goes to R. of the DC0 and it appears that the young man's ID is similar to that of a wanted man. I give these details to the Operation Department and he is freed in five minuets.

Our shift was shortened for personal reasons.

15.35 Za'tara
From Nablus are 40 cars with two lines working and only IDs checked. A bus is detained and the driver says they have been there an hour. We see the dog checking and people getting back into the car.  From the west are 15 taxis.

Translation: Rachel B.

7:55 AM:

As we go past the Barkan Industrial Zone we look towards the blockade.  The gate was open. The impression we got is that the blockade there has been removed, but we didn't have time to investigate this fully since we had gotten a late start.

8:05 AM

We went past Marda where all the gates through which the farmers go to their fields on foot were closed with iron chains.  Only the main entrance - across from the village of Zeita - was open.  The exit to Road #5 from Zeita is still blocked with cement blocks.

Za'atra Junction: 8:15 AM

There are 5 cars approaching from the west. The time it takes to be cheeked through is under one minute. From the direction of Nablus there are 8 cars.  Here, too, the checking proceeds fast.

Huwwara: 8:30 AM

The curfew was lifted last night and according to N., the people on last night's shift did some shopping in the village.

Beit Furik: 8:40 AM

There are 12 cars in the parking lot.  We checked how long it takes cars to go through.  Compared to previous weeks there has been an improvement - it takes under a minute for a car going into Nablus.  However, cars coming out of Nablus that are on their way back to Beit Furik take more than 5 minutes to be checked through.. Since there are not 2 lines for checking cars, the total wait from arrival at he parking lot till the car passes the checkpoint is about an hour.   

9:15AM:

A car from the District Coordinating Office (D.C.O.) arrived. A. got off to give the soldiers instructions on how to process the cars through the checkpoint faster.  During this time, processing cars came to a halt for 10 minutes, but after the instructions were given the pace picked up.

E. told us that they are going around to all the checkpoints, but have had to give these instructions especially at this one.  In response to our question about why there are not 2 lines for processing cars in tandem, he tells us that he does not have enough soldiers to do that.  Furthermore, the D.C.O. allocates one of its staff to each checkpoint for a half a day and apparently at this checkpoint, the staff person is due for the afternoons shift.

Pedestrians went though quickly and no one was detained.

Awarta 9:30 AM

There is a line of about 30 cars from the direction of Nablus.  A Jeep from the D.C.O. is at the site and, evidently, from the moment it arrived the soldiers have been processing cars through quickly - no more than a 2 minute inspection per car.  R. from Beit Furik explains that the long line is due to the fact that in the past 3 weeks trucks have been permitted to exit Nablus only thorough Awarta.   Only trucks with a special permit from the D.C.O. at Irtach can pass through Beit Ibba.  At Beit Ibba, he says, only cars and trucks with "humanitarian cargo" - milk, medicine and meat- can pass through.

Huwwara Checkpoint 10:00 AM

In the parking lot the peddlers complain that they were told to close their stalls in the morning.  It turns out that the D.C.O. decided to do a major clean-up and E. announced to the people there that until the whole area is clean they will not be allowed to sell their wares.  They were instructed to do this {the clean-up} within two hours. After an hour and a half we saw a few of the peddlers begin to open their stalls and sell.  A proper stall - like the one the settlers have at Za'tara - is, of course, not permitted to them.  Of course, there are no restrooms in the parking lot which serves dozens of passengers - {no matter}, as long as there is a "clean-up operation..."

There are almost no cars going out. Those that do come through are checked in 5 minutes.

There are about 50 pedestrians waiting in line.  It's not clear to us why the processing is so slow when there are so many people waiting.  Each person spends about 20 minutes at the checkpoint -from his arrival to departure.   There is a separate, faster line for women and the elderly. Maybe this is dependent on the expertise of the soldiers and the quality of the commander of the checkpoint.

A man carrying a car battery tried to pass through the checkpoint. Instead of asking him to put the battery through the scanner, the soldiers caledl the checkpoint commander and only then, when he instructed them to put the battery through the scanner, was this done  and the man went through. Throughout this whole time - about 10 minutes- people were waiting in line until the soldiers were freed up to check them through.

A boy under the age of 15 goes through without his parents. He has a birth certificate and a copy of his parents' ID cards.  The woman military police officer explains to the soldiers that this is the way to verify that he is, indeed, his parents' child and that it is not always possible for parents to accompany their children since they may be working or busy with other things. It turns out, then, that there are some leniencies in processing children through, or perhaps it's just the common sense of this particular officer.

10:30 AM

{We meet a detainee} who has been detained for a half hour.  We manage to talk to him and get his identifying information.  He told us that he is detained every time he goes through this checkpoint.  We passed along his information to Asaf from the Human Rights organization to follow up on.

Marda: 11:00 AM

We got a message from Tami C. that some soldiers had gone into the village of Marda and that the villagers are complaining about the closure of the exits from the village.  This makes it impossible to get to the fields on the other side of Road #5 in a reasonable amount of time. As we have seen, the exits are blocked so the farmers cannot get to t their fields to work.  When we arrived at the entrance to the village, the people there said that the soldiers had just left and, indeed, we saw several army Jeeps gathered near an isolated house across the way from the village.  We left it to the afternoon shift to take pictures of the closed gates in order to file a complaint with the D.C.O. and the IDF authorities, since we did not have cameras with us.

 Translation: Tal H.

15:10 - 17:45

On our way: driving along highway no. 5

Past Ariel colony the highway narrows into a pot-holed two-way road (one lane in each direction). Ariel is brightly lit and spacious, while at its feet, Marda village is strangled by this "step-sister" that has grown on top of it and the fence that has enclosed it. Marda villagers who until a few days ago could access the main road by foot and wait for a passing service taxi, can now do so only through the village's main entrance. The entrance further to the west, blocked with a dirt mound and an iron barrier that prevents vehicle passage, has yesterday been blocked with barbed wire thus eliminating another passageway for humans and livestock. On our way back into Israel we note the sky above Marda a bright orange color from an illuminating bomb.

It reminds us of the stories we learned in our youth about the Hagana's offense tactics in 1948 which would lead to massive expulsion of indigenous communities by scaring, closure and killing...

Access to Zeita village and its neighbors on road no. 5 is also blocked. Passengers have to resort to back-to-back embarking.

Zatara-Tapuach Junction Checkpoint -
17 vehicles southbound from Nablus. There will be 13 vehicles in the same direction on our way back in the evening.

Huwwara village-town has been under curfew since 9 a.m. today, until 3 p.m. Why? "The army says someone threw stones at a colonist driver". Or perhaps this is punishment of the villagers for having dared complain about the colonist who was running wild with violent acts two weeks ago, smashing shop windows and car windshields and? Everything is possible.

No checkpoint at Yitzhar-Huwwara junction.

15:10 - Huwwara CP.

Dco representative - R.

No detainees. 3 long waiting lines of pedestrian males in the shed, 2 special side lines active all the time, 2 checking posts for vehicles exiting Nablus, one of them wo-manned by sniffer-dog and trainer, the dog leaping and drooling all over the car's upholstery, steering wheel and engine in search of the its hidden prize...

The dog trainer-operator: a delicate looking girl, her smooth hair in a ponytail, not tall, not heavyset, the girl next door, easily a classmate. What is she doing here with her M16, her German shepherd tied to her with a metal chain, her helmet, her large slung khakis?

An elderly man, hardly able to walk, drags himself along the side line, supported by two relatives. He can hardly cross the distance from the checkpoint to the taxi park, stopping to rest every few yards, one of his eyes bandaged.

A vehicle carrying lambs - purchased by a Nablus resident from a Beita village resident - is not allowed passage. He holds no special permit. What will the man do with the lambs? His own vehicle is waiting on the other side of the Checkpoint, not allowed to exit Nablus. Since even the DCO rep. cannot help, the lambs are taken off the vehicle and led on the road to the other side of the CP. "Wait! I haven't given you permission!" the soldier yells from his checking post.

A new line crosses the concrete compound at Huwwara CP: THE RED LINE. Before  we leave for Beit Furik a sergeant arrives and demands we stand behind it only. The red line is a meter and a half further back from the former white line and has been drawn, so says the soldier, by the commander. A short argument over our rights and theirs, military or civilian area etc., ended with nothing. The sergeant says he will summon the commander to talk to us, but that does not happen.

Upon our return from Beit Furik at 17:15, the young men still fill the shed, reporting over two hours waiting in line. They exit the turnstiles frozen, coat and belt in hand. "The leaders only talk, they don't do a thing" they hiss crossly.

17:45 It is so cold that fear of hypothermia chases us into Nadim's warm car and we leave.

Beit Furik Checkpoint

15:40 - 17:10

It is extremely cold at Beit Furik. No detainees, hardly any pedestrians and the few who arrive pass rapidly. Belongings are inspected on the ground at the feet of the soldier who stands behind the ID checking post, until their owners pick them up and speed away from the cold.

Few vehicles waiting in line, about ten minutes each. This morning, say the drivers, they had to wait an hour and a half.

Translation: Hanna K.

7:45 Za'tara:
There are two cars from the west. From the north there are two busses parked at the detention lot. We address one of the drivers, he says that today things are OK, he lingers because he waits for some of the buses passengers who went to the toilets. It turns out that they brought a toilet cell to the CP. There are 3 checking posts, but on our way to Huwwara we count 60 vehicles waiting in the queue.

8:15 Beit Furik:
There are 9 vehicles waiting. A driver tells us that he has been waiting for half an hour at the CP.
At the turnstiles there are about 30 people. We notice a young man who sits in the detention cell.
The detainee was released but not before he was checked by the CP commander, with hands lifted, leaning on the wall, while the commander felt his body. The commander demands that we retreat to the virtual white line, but is prepared to talk to us. When we ask about the young man he replies that he was detained because he "created havoc". It is clear that his corporal examination was an act of humiliation.
8:30 The CP has become empty, but from time to time a group of a number of people arrives.

8:50 Awarta:
There are 4 trucks heading for Nablus, a great number of cars are waiting to leave Awarta. A soldier who is prepared to talk to us is immediately stopped by his commander.

9:15 Huwwara:
The taxi parking lot is teeming with life, there is an animated traffic to Nablus. At the CP there is a X-Ray machine, 2 checking posts.
The CP commander comes up to us and shakes our hands. He tells us that there was much more pressure before, in the morning, because of the end of the vacation.
9:25 One of the people leaving the turnstiles comes to us. He complains that in the heavy cold of this day he had to wait half an hour, more than on other mornings.
9:30 Another Palestinian tells us that he has been waiting for a quarter of an hour at the CP.
9:50 One of the man leaving the turnstile area comes to us and asks for our help: he is married and father of three, works in Israel leagally. He had a work permit valid till 31.1.08, but a few weeks ago his permit was taken away from him at the Tul Karem CP.
He cannot understand why the permit was taken from him. He goes every day, so he says, to the DCO and pleads to be told what wrong he has done, but he gets no reply.
We referred him to Silvia P.

10:05 We left the CP.

 Translation: Hanna K.
 

1425 - Marda, an open gate. Zeita - the entrance is closed with concrete blocks.

1429 - Za'tara/Tapuach
There are 7 cars coming from the West waiting to be checked at one checking post.

Coming from the North (from Nablus) 15 cars are waiting to be checked, there are 3 checking posts

The village of Huwwara - One doesn't see over the confiscated house the camouflage net and the Israeli flag.

1435 Burin/Yitzhar CPs are empty.

1437 Huwwara -
There are two detainees in the confinement cell: one passed with his vehicle on the apartheid road, the second passed on foot. They are detained since 1200 hrs. They were not told for how long they will be detained.

Upon our arrival we see that in the three queues of the young men there are about 150 pedestrians standing and waiting. One post is manned (the western one). 10 minutes after our arrival the military police soldier girls and the security men  arrived and manned the two abandoned posts. They gave passage permits to the waiting people after they were checked by the magnometer and had to discard each and every clothing item containing metal, ID cars, all this accompanied by screeching talk of the soldier girls. There is an x-ray vehicle.  There is no pressure at the queue of the vehicles entering Nablus. At the side queue there is almost no waiting.

1500 - Five taxi drivers are taken to the turnstile aread as a punishment action: in the packed full parking lot there is no particular place for the "special" taxis, so the drivers park near the exit from the lot, where there is a red white marking. The CP commander talks with them and releases them, after they have almost been put into the detention cell. At exactly the same time aforementioned detainees are released from the cell. A military-policewoman screams at me "it is forbidden to take photos".

T., an officer from the DCO, says that the posts were not manned because at that time exactly there was a changing of the shifts. He was the DCO officer who at the time solved the problem which arose when a Palestinian policeman was found wearing military shoes (of the Israeli Defence forces) - by taking the shoes off his feet and allowing him to walk in his socks. We reported to him that surplus IDF equipment was passed on to the Palestinian police in the Authority (again thanks to Hanna B., for checking and getting the authorization for this) but T. tries to investigate the matter on his own through the DCO and to ascertain that this information is indeed right. Until we left the CP no answer was received.

1602 - Beit Furik -
At the parking lot 5 vehicles are waiting to be checked in order to pass on to Nablus. It is impossible to see how many vehicles are waiting to pass from Nablus to Beit Furik. In the afternoon, after work at Nablus stops, the upsurge directed home, to Beit Furik, begins. The passengers of a minibus from Beit Furik are requested to alight and be checked at the pedestrians post. In 8 minutes 4 vehicles which waited in the queue to enter Nablus, passed.

A truck loaded with wood beams, which had been waiting in the queue before (in the Beit Furik parking lot) arrives at the CP and the driver waits for a sign to approach the checking point, but the checking of the vehicles stops.

A military vehicle is positioned in the lane intended for the passage of vehicles, in fact near the checking soldiers, and soldiers alight from it.

The pedestrians continue passing. There is no pressure under the shed.

1617-  Another military vehicle arrives - soldiers stand and talk and there is no vehicle traffic

1627 - we call the N. at the Center : why is there no vehicle traffic. She promises to find out

1630 -  A military Hammer and a van arrive

1633 -  The gathering has ended but they still don't let vehicles pass

The officer A. (major) explains that this is a unique event - owing to the changing of the shifts. Ordinarily they try to do it at midnight - today, exceptionally the changing of shifts has been made just now.

1636 - The van loaded with wood beams which had been waiting for a sign to pass since 1614 - the driver is allowed to move - to be checked and to drive to Nablus.

The office A. announced that in about an hour a reinforcement will arrive as there will be a greater pressure and he hoped (didn't promise) that there would be two checking lanes for vehicles.

1642 - an event worthy of mentioning - 2 checking lanes for vehicles are opened at Beit Furik!!!(better not to develop expectations - this is really an extraordinary event).

1700 - we watch (from the Awarta CP) in the direction of the queue for vehicles leaving Nablus to the Huwwara CP - we see 3 waiting vehicles.

1703 - The Burin/Yitzhar CPs are empty (not manned)

1711 - Za'tara/Tapuach - from the north it is empty, from the west: 16 vehicles waiting to be checked in one checking post are counted

1716 - Zeita - the entrance is closed, Marda - the gate is open

1718 - One Hammer with blinking nights at the side of the road west of Marda, some time late another Hammer with dimmed lights.

1723 - at the turning to Chares - there is a Hammer with blinking lights

Translation: Maureen A.

This was a short shift, due to the terrible cold and the small number of people at the checkpoints.

7:02     The entrance to Marda is open, the entrance road to Zeita is blocked by huge    concrete blocks. A command-car is stationed opposite the passageway to    Zeita.

7:10     The Tapuach-Za'tara Junction

            It's almost completely empty; 2 - 3 cars are standing at the checkpoint, from     the Huwarra direction and they go through quickly. A bus stops, the           passengers are taken off, in the parking lot, but in less than five minutes they       are allowed to re-enter the bus and it continues on its way. It looks like the soldiers are shortening the process due to the cold.

7:10     Huwwara

            There are practically no pedestrians or vehicles. It's very cold, so there are        relatively few people in the parking lot as well. In the solitary confinement    area we find M. S. , a student at El Najanah in             Nablus, who had been on his way to work at Barkan. He says that he is            stopped every time because he's on the wanted list. The floor of this area is covered with water and it's practically impossible to stand there without             getting your shoes wet. Rachel finds him lying on a kind of high wooden bunk     in the solitary    confinement area. M. says he argued with the soldiers      so he wouldn't have to stand there - and he's there anyway. When we asked             the Checkpoint Commander, he said that the guy was really on the wanted list   and that this time he had really acted violently, so he decided to detain him for           3 hours, authorized by someone or other. When we arrive, M. has             already been detained for 2 hours.  He says he wants to go to the DCO in order            to take care of his issues.

8:05     Beit Furik

            There are 9 cars in line, very few pedestrians. We met Osama, who is once       again working, serving coffee and tea, since he couldn't find work in Nablus.

8:25     We leave Beit Furik

8:30     Awarta

            The parking lot is empty. At the checkpoint there are 5 cars/trucks coming         from Nablus, waiting to be checked. The line moves relatively quickly. 3        trucks are waiting to enter Nablus.

9:04     Tapuach - Za'tara

            There are 5 cars in line; it looks quiet and they are going through quickly. On     the way back, Marda and Zeita are the same as when we passed them earlier.

Translation: Hanna K.

08:00 Za'tara/Tapuach Junction: There are no cars.

Burin/Yitzhar Junction: The CP is not manned.

Beit Furik:
Very few cars and few people passing. Probably because of the "bridge"  - Yesterday there was a Christian holiday and tomorrow is the Hajara day for the Muslims. The Government has declared a bridge day.
The soldiers are almost idle. We do not approach beyond the turnstiles. One bored soldier comes up to us to say good morning...

09:00  Huwwara
About 20-30 people are waiting. Somebody complains that he has been waiting for an hour and a half.
There are two checking points and one humanitarian point.
Because of the winter clothes the checking is slowed down: coats are taken off, sweaters are lifted, a belt is taken off...
T. from the DCO arrives. He exudes friendliness. He invites us to come to the watch-stand on the lane that leads to the exntrance to Nablus, to see the poster that hangs there - as a result of our initiative. The poster depicts the certificates that provide its bearers with the permission to enter Nablus, such as the ones given to the different Human Rights organizations.
The aim of the poster is to make things easier for the soldiers and to avoid arguments.
We again are confronted with the paradox of the occupation: deeds that are performed perhaps also from a desire to simplify processes, and possibly even to make things easier, become another layer in the perpetuation of the occupation and its becoming a permanent fixture.
The CP commander B. behaves politely towards us. When we ask why there are only two checking posts, we answers that the soldiers are eating just now. But even half an hour later no additional checking post was opened. At the CP there are today relatively many soldiers, probably because of Bush's visit.

10:00 Burin/Yitzhar Junction: it is no manned.
Za'tara/Tapuah Junction: There are about 12 cars waiting.