school children

Translator:  Charles K.

06:10  A’anin agricultural checkpoint

The checkpoint is open; inspections are conducted in the center of the checkpoint (far from us).  We’re told that about 50 people are waiting.  A new detachment of soldiers works very slowly until 06:45 and then speeds up.  People complain that the soldiers are being picky about clothing – those who, in their opinion, are dressed too well, too neatly, “inappropriately” for farm work – aren’t allowed through.  Each time there’s a renewed argument with someone else about the fact that the occupying power permits them to reach their lands, which are trapped behind the separation fence, only twice a week; we hear their voices.  One says:  “I want to walk (through my olive grove) – I’m forbidden?”  And adds, provocatively:  “Are you too forbidden from just wandering around?”

The red-headed tractor driver wants to see his son, who lives in Umm Reihan, to bring clothes and food to his grandchildren,  but he isn’t allowed to take them through.  Only after arguing for a few minutes, during which the checkpoint stops operating, the soldiers change their minds and allow him through with the “equipment.” 

06:50  We left; 20 people still wait to cross.

07:00  Tura-Shaked checkpoint

We arrive at the checkpoint together with the soldiers.  The teachers and pupils from the Tura elementary school are already waiting to cross.  The fenced corridor is closed and locked; ten minutes later a soldier comes to open it.  More than 20 people wait at the revolving gate on the West Bank side.  The wait is relatively long.

07:30  Barta’a-Reihan checkpoint

A long line of private cars and taxis waits to cross to the West Bank.  The procedure requires that while documents are being inspected the passengers get out and wait at the booth on the road. 

Two trucks loaded with merchandise wait on the road too.

The checkpoint parking lot is full of parked cars.  On the other hand, there are few taxis (private taxis, not authorized ones).  Drivers of those taxis earn most of their money in the afternoon and evening when residents of the West Bank return home.  Towards 08:00 the flow of people arriving at the checkpoint increases; they’re all on their way to work in the seam zone, primarily in eastern Barta’a.  People cross quickly, without delays both here and in the upper fenced corridor.

It’s a gray, hot, hazy day; the world around us seems to have passed out…

13:00 Tapuach Junction checkpoint

Unmanned. On our way back, at 17:30, still unmanned, but 3 Border Policemen sit there, openly bored.

13:20 – Maale Efraim checkpoint

Unmanned. In the afternoon, at 17:15, 3 reservists man the checkpoint but cars pass unchecked.

15:00 and 16:45- Hamra checkpoint

Manned by reservists. Passengers in both directions are not required to disembark. This is a relief, that can be repealed at any moment as we saw on March 19, when in the morning people could cross in their cars and in the afternoon they were forced to disembark and cross the checkpoint on foot.

Cars traveling to the Jordan Valley are checked, their driver made to disembark and stand beside the car. Cars traveling into the West Bank were not checked.

On March 23, the checkpoint was closed for about 3.5 hours (according to a phone report). It was evening and the soldiers directed the Palestinian vehicles to the fields south of the checkpoint and instructed them to bypass it, unchecked. A bus load of school children on their way home from a school trip was not able to manage the dirt road and the children had to sit still inside the bus for all of 3.5 hours. Around 8 p.m. the checkpoint was reopened for traffic. A phone call to the DCO produced the following answers:

1. A Palestinian reached the checkpoint and tried to attack the soldiers.

2. (later) An explosive charge was discovered in his things and they were waiting for a robot to come and detonate it.

Before the checkpoint was reopened a blast was heard.

Talking with a Palestinian today, we heard there’s a rumor about that a 15-year-old boy was arrested following the blast incident and passed on for interrogation to the Palestinian security services. Admittedly, this is but a rumor and has not been verified by anyone.

15:30 Tyassir checkpoint

Here too, the soldiers are reservists, friendly and smiling. The traffic is scant and passage swift. Passengers cross inside their cars, wave to us in greeting and say that crossing this morning was alright, too.

Generally speaking, things are calm, we saw no army forces on maneuvers, and the presence of soldiers on the ground was relatively scant. The Palestinians also report an easy day at the checkpoints, and that they’ve suffered no extraordinary violence in the past few days. Just plain old quiet routine oppression.

:photos

 freedom theatre in the jordan valley

  jordan valley solidarity and freedom  theatre bus building a school

 Zaatara checkpoint -  passengers taken off a bus on thier way home

The Freedom Bus (of the Freedom Theatre, Jenin) goes down to the Jordan Valley;

Don’t discard me when I get old – the elderly couple whose home was demolished on January 24^th, 2013, what is happening with them now?

Dog trainers practicing at Tapuach Checkpoint – at the expense of Palestinians.

10:50, Tapuach Checkpoint – unmanned, 

but two bored Border Policemen are busy sitting and eating at the roadside. On the hill overlooking the roundabout, a single soldier stands next to the watchtower.

11:10 – Maale Efrayim Checkpoint- manned by 3 soldiers checking vehicles entering the Palestinian Jordan Valley.

11:35, Hamra Checkpoint – cars traveling in both directions are allowed through without passengers having to disembark for 

inspection. The soldiers attempt to force us away from our usual (distant) spot, we insist on staying, they give in. Even when cars are not inspected, every car that arrives is required to stop about 50 meters before the checkpoint and await the soldier’s slight gesture signaling it to approach. How do the Palestinians know they must stop? There is no sign instructing them to do so. Just like the apartheid roads, here, too the instructions are kept unwritten, so as not to be photographed and seen publicly, but they are the law and woe to any who dares overlook them.

12:10, Gokhia Gate – a single soldier with lots of gear and five submachine guns pointing north, stands by the closed gate, waiting for his unit. When it arrives they will cross the gate east-bound for another series of maneuvers (a few days ago the inhabitants of Ras Al Ahmar were forced away from their homes for 24 hours, for the sake of these maneuvers).

A Palestinians arrives at the gate from the Jordan Valley side, to pick up his brother. They tell us that the gate is never, ever opened. Neither at 3 p.m. nor at 8 a.m. (when it is supposed to be opened at their disposal, as agreed upon at the Red Cross’ demand). Neither when Palestinians show up nor when they don’t. The occupier has decided to forego even this faint illusion of passage and now it is official – the prison that is the Palestinian Jordan Valley is closed.

12:40, Tyassir checkpoint – scant traffic, fast passage, no delays. The passengers are allowed through inside the vehicles, without disembarking.

Fighter planes and distance explosions resound throughout the afternoon.

We stopped at Hamam Al Malih to see the elderly couple whose hovel had been demolished twice (the second time, January 24^th, 2013, the tent supplied by the Red Cross and all their effects were taken as well). The woman, N., came out to greet us from their neighbors’ tent, where she and her husband have been dwelling since the demolitions. They are prevented from returning to the place where they lived for years (I personally have been their guest often in the past 6 years), where they raised their children who have long since flown away to live elsewhere. In their advanced age, the two have become homeless. N.’s arm is still very swollen since she did not get medical treatment for injury, fearing she couldn’t afford such care. Only yesterday she finally went to have it examined and was informed that her shoulder is fractured and forearm badly bruised.

13:30, Samara (south of the Um Zuka reserve)  - members of the Jenin Freedom Theatre, founded by Arna Mer and her son Juliano, have come out on a wondrous journey to visit the brave residents of the Jordan Valley who are holding on to their land steadfastly in both the Palestinian Jordan Valley and the South Hebron Hills (the bus will be visiting there next week). In daytime the young actors keep the children busy with games, singing and dancing, and in the evening they perform for the adults. In between they sit under a tree and play music – strumming the oud, drumming the darbouka, playing the accordion and other instruments whose names are unfamiliar to me, but their lovely tones float up in the warm breeze above the reddish hills of the Jordan Valley and carry a message of freedom and rectitude. Next to them a group of youngsters from Finland, Wales and even Majdal Shams has joined the activists of Jordan Valley Solidarity in order to build a schoolhouse for the children of the region, out of mud bricks.

Two of Samara’s inhabitants approach me, seeking help. M. and his brother graze their flock, and at the end of summer when the grass is scarce, they enter that miserably neglected place which the occupier has named “Um Zuka nature reserve” in search of food for their livestock. Every time they are caught there with their flock, they are fined thousands of shekels. They say they have documents proving their ownership claim to the land inside the reserve from those days when the region’s people were allowed to make their living out of the valley’s growth. They have consulted with a lawyer who told them there was nothing to be done. On the other hand, while a nature reserve, the area is also a “firing zone” for the army (the two signs stand next to each other…) and the army’s maneuvers often set the reserve in flames. M. and his brother tell us how on different occasions they recruited their extended family to fight the flames, as none of those authorities who so hastily fine them for grazing there never came to the rescue… They are seeking some protection, help against this abuse.

15:00, Hamra checkpoint – 4 Palestinians are standing at the side, detained 15 minutes for inspection. As soon as we showed up, their papers are returned to them and they get on their way. One of them wants to go back to Nablus but does not know the way. He tries to walk back, but the soldiers run towards him to prevent this and make him get on the road. He goes around the fence and proceeds towards the soldiers on the road, but then they remember there’s a special track for pedestrians bound for Nablus, except that it means going back 50 meters to the junction and that is where they send him. The man, embarrassed and rather scared, signals to the soldiers that his leg hurts. They relent and let him use the road.

Unlike this morning, now all those arriving from the West Bank hills are required to disembark about30 meters before the checkpoint, cross on foot and wait for the vehicle on the other side. Everything, after all, depends on the whims of the soldiers manning the checkpoint. In the middle of the checkpoint a military vehicle stands, blocking the road, so no car is able to get through, for about 20 minutes. When the cars begin to cross, every driver is asked “Where to? What for?” as if that should be the soldier’s business…

16:30, Maale Efrayim Checkpoint – manned, every car entering the Jordan Valley is checked.

16:45, Tapuach Checkpoint at Zaatara Junction -  a bus is parked in the lot, having brought a detector dog unit to the checkpoint. Every female soldier-trainer has a dog. 3 cars stand parallel to each other, a dog is made to enter each, climbing on the front as well as back seats, salivating and sniffing. About 10 meters to the back stand the passengers in a straight line, looking on with disgust, having been ordered by the soldiers. The dog is an unclean animal in Islam and the Palestinians have a very hard time with having dogs introduced into their cars. The large number of trainers attests to this being no security matter but rather a training practice for the soldiers and their dogs. I believe that only a security need of the highest degree might be an excuse to hurt people’s religious feelings so severely. The practice should be done some other way…

The dog trainers don't like our photographing the situation and summon the policeman to order us away. The obedient policeman tells us to keep our distance and not take pictures, claiming it's forbidden. We explain we're photographing from behind but he is not convinced. Finally the practice is over, IDs are returned to the Palestinians standing in line, and they angrily get on their way. The trainers continue hanging around the checkpoint, each with her dog.

In the meantime we notice that on road 60 vehicles bound for Nablus are being stopped. We didn't notice this before because the inspections are usually held in cars coming from Nablus and heading south, and the whole structure of the checkpoint is built accordingly. But this time, "to confuse the enemy", some Border Policemen stand on the north-bound lane, and have stopped a red car and a bus full of youngsters heading back from a demonstration in Ramallah. The passengers of the red car disembark and the car is thoroughly checked, as if the soldiers have some kind of information on it. 15 minutes later it is released. THe soldiers order all male passengers off the bus, while the women remain inside. 25 young men stand on the sidewalk, their IDs taken. "Photograph this!" they say. "Take a picture of the driver!" they laugh, and he, a jolly chubby type, poses for us, sporting his paunch with a good natured smile, and everyone has a moment's relief in this imposed halt...

Two of the youngsters have no IDs, they've forgotten them at home so they are made to stand apart. A third young man is led to the shack in the middle of the road and is held there, with the soldiers trying to turn him around so he wouldn't "observe" them, but this is rather impossible for he can "observe" something from every angle. They give up. The youngster looks stressed. Finally, after 220 minutes, he is allowed to get back to the bus. The soldiers check the ID numbers one by one on their radio. They even bother calling the homes of the two ID-less persons, asking for their numbers to check their legitimacy. When the soldiers are finally satisfaied, half an hour later, the bus continues home to Tul Karm.

The Israeli authorities may have relieved the burden of some major checkpoints, but every Palestinian who ventures out of his home knows very well that on his way, at any given moment, surprise barriers might suddenly pop up, and he will be experiencing yet again the stress caused by a document that doesn't look right to the soldiers, and standing in the cold of descending evening, and the dogs sniffing inside the cars, and no certainty anywhere along the journey, regardless of how short or long it actually is. 

13:40  Habla gate.  The children’s bus comes from Habla to the exit, three girls get off and are taken to the scanner for inspection, the bus awaits them outside.  When they came out I asked them why they in particular were taken to be inspected.  The answer:  they’re older and have ID cards.

Two Palestinians waited under the canopy near the gate.  When they saw us they began complaining that they’ve been waiting half an hour and the worker they hired to pick lemons isn’t being allowed through.  The soldier told him that “you can’t go through because of the holiday.”  I telephoned ‘Adel who didn’t understand what holiday she was talking about.  He promised to take care of it.  Meanwhile the two men got tired of waiting; they said they wanted to return home before the gate closed and they’d have to wait until evening.  I told them that it was being taken care of; they said they’d wait on the other side with their worker.  Meanwhile Tedesa telephoned me (after ‘Adel spoke to him); he said he’d spoken to the soldier in charge who told him that nothing like that had happened.  Meanwhile I see the three of them approaching the gate and told Tedesa that she’d just released him.

14:10  The Eliyahu crossing was filled with military vehicles; something must have happened, but they wouldn’t answer my questions.  We continued; two Hummers were parked opposite the entrance to Ma’aleh Shomron.  There were also soldiers at the entrance to Qedumim, and two jeeps.  Well, the lords have to be protected, no?

Jit junction.  A new military position on the north side behind the railing is manned.

Huwwara is empty.

Za’tara.  Manned, inspections underway with dogs.

16:10  A group of soldiers stood at the Hars traffic light on the north side behind the railing.  Five vehicles were detained for inspection.

16:20  Azzun Atma.  No laborers crossing.  We drove to the parking lot opposite Oranit where the Palestinian laborers get out of their transportation.  Three laborers were there.  They told us they were from Aqraba, planning to walk to the checkpoint and get a taxi from there because there are no taxis to their villages from where they’re let off.  It’s so disheartening…

Translator:  Charles K.

The photographs:

Curve 160 checkpoint in Hebron – small stones the children threw

Soldiers who came from the Jabel Juhar neighborhood (Area H1, which is supposed to be under Palestinian control)

Helmets sitting on the concrete barriers instead of on the soldiers’ heads.

The pillbox on Highway 60 at the Dura – Al Fawwar junction.

The sign warning it’s dangerous to enter Area A, soldiers alongside.

Yesterday a Palestinian youth was killed by live fire at the Dura Al Fawwar junction on Highway 60.  And today?!  Today everyone’s on alert, sad, with heavy hearts.  If you read the entire report you’ll agree with me that Edmond Levi is wrong – there is in fact an occupation!!!

What we did on today’s shift (tales of the occupation)

Meitar checkpoint

By 06:45 all the laborers had crossed and wait for their rides…the earthworks continue and the rubbish is still there.

Highway 60, Southern Hebron Hills

Khirbet Tawwani – The soldiers escorting the children walking to school from Umm Tuba arrive on time this morning.  The Palestinians have asked us to try to arrange for the children to be driven to school.  The Civil Administration representatives have thus far refused – we asked our attorney, Gabi Lassky, to write some letters.  We’ll see what happens.  The children have been walking to school with a military escort since 2004.  Wouldn’t it be easier to find the hoodlums from the Ma’on Farm and get rid of them?  They’re on privately owned land; cf. Talia Sasson’s report.

Zif junction – We see here for the first time the army’s heightened preparations – vehicles for dispersing demonstrations, Border Police vehicles and a squad of soldiers at the checkpoint – no one is crossing and there’s very little vehicle traffic.

Kvasim junction – Border Police soldiers standing under the pillbox stop a Palestinian motorcyclist, check him and release him immediately when they see us.

The junction to Kiryat Arba on Highway 60

Palestinian families own land beyond the gas station, below Mitzpeh Avichai and before Giv’at Mamreh – approximately 30 dunums.  For thirteen years they haven’t been allowed to reach their land and cultivate it.  Today, following coordination between the Palestinian and the Israeli DCO, they came with tractors to try to enter and work the land.  They reached the entrance gate; the Kiryat Arba security people didn’t let them through.  When we met them they’d already been waiting for three hours, trying every way they could to convince the Palestinian DCO to arrange things with the Israeli DCO, but to no avail.  We see the despair and helplessness in their eyes.  We referred them to Yesh Din.  They talked to M., from Yesh Din, in our presence; let’s hope something comes of it.

Hebron

We visit the teachers at the Cordova school.  The handrail of the stairs has been repainted…giving apartheid a festive air.  Again they request what we haven’t been able to implement …Hebrew classes…

The green apartheid fence on the eastern side of the Cave of the Patriarchs plaza sparkles in the sun.

Curve 160 – The occupation’s Rashomon continues.  A Palestinian stops us just before the checkpoint.  He tells us that five 9 and 10 year old children from the Assissiya boys’ school in Jabel Johar threw stones at the checkpoint.  In response, the soldiers entered the school and sprayed tear gas.  The teachers then closed the school; they’re now on strike.  An ambulance evacuated pupils who were injured.

We reach the checkpoint – the gate is open, three police cars and a military vehicle, senior officers on site – no one wearing a helmet, everyone relaxed, some drinking coffee, a few small stones scattered on the street.  We asked how many children were here – 50-100, they reply.   (We see almost no children and very few passersby).  The gate is still open; two soldiers walked into the neighborhood, stopped past the first grocery store and then came out.

What really happened?  You decide between the two versions.  On the basis of what I saw, I tend to believe the Palestinians.  One of the soldiers checks his iPhone to see whether there were reports on Walla or Ynet.

The occupation routine?

Translation: Bracha B.A.

Shaked-Tura Checkpoint, 07:10

There is a little bit of light penetrating from behind dark clouds. School children are singing behind the container at the checkpoint and are begging Ruthi to take their pictures with her smart phone. We didn't know why they did not go through the open checkpoint. Later the car with the kindergarten children arrived and they drove through the checkpoint together. The soldiers peeked inside and let them pass through to their school in the village  

Workers are coming out in the direction of the seamline zone with sopping wet clothes. They are angry that they were not allowed to enter the inspection room through the turnstile or to stand near it because the shed is six meters high (20 feet) and open to the wind and rain. We did not see the kindergarten children. They had probably arrived before we came. The right-hand lane for vehicles is not operating. (It had not been operating when we were last here two weeks ago). The inspectors' building is covered in waterproof plastic and they are relatively dry.

Reihan-Barta'a Checkpoint 07:45

We didn't see any trucks waiting to be checked. The lower parking lot is full. We stood under the shed next to the gate where people enter the terminal. Taxis let people off and they hurry in the rain towards the entrance. The soldier in the booth shouted at them not to run, but only once. It is not easy to remain outside in the pouring rain. We drank tea with ginger (good for sore throats) and waited for Amjar and his daughter to take them to a meeting in Kfar Kara.

Translator:  Charles K.

11:45  Za’tara/Tapuach junction. 

Not manned, but there’s a soldier in the observation post.

12:10  Ma’aleh Efrayim checkpoint.  Not manned.

Palestinians tell us:  There’s another extensive military maneuver in the JordanValley, from the Jiftlik to Homsa (about 20 km. further north).  Residents of al Ajaj and Homsa received written orders to vacate the area from 4 am to 4 pm.  For their own good, so they won’t be injured.  The settlement of Beqa’ot is also located in the heart of that area, but the military exercise bypassed it, of course, and Israeli bullets are intelligent enough to distinguish during exercises between Israelis and Palestinians, which is why only Palestinians are in danger…  Residents of the Jiftlik report that the firing was so close to their homes that they felt as if they and their families were under attack.

We also saw a large group of soldiers on the road between the Tayasir checkpoint and Hamam el Malih, and another unit north of Ro’i (right across from a Bedouin encampment).  Both units appeared to have just arrived and were getting settled – part of the same exercise?  Or is another maneuver getting underway there as well, to the north of the first one?

Gochia checkpoint.

After the checkpoint gate was shattered during the previous maneuvers at the beginning of November so that tanks could go through freely (and also during July’s summer maneuvers), and dumped into the ditch cutting through the Jordan Valley and dividing it from the central West Bank, as if there was no longer any use for it, the checkpoint stayed open and Palestinians were able to go through for a month and a half.  Yesterday a new gate was erected; it’s still open, but we can assume that it will soon be closed to Palestinians and children will once again be unable to get to school or the sick to reach a doctor.  And the question arises, whose security is being increased by erecting a gate between the farmers of Hadidiya and Homsa and their livelihood, when for a month or two it was wide open and nothing happened?

13:20  Tayasir checkpoint.

For the past week Palestinians have been allowed to go through the checkpoint without leaving their cars.  They no longer have to wait 30 meters from the checkpoint for the soldier to beckon them forward, no longer must children cross on foot and face the threatening guns while their father drives the car through, but still each person and car is inspected, and the occupier controls all movement.  If he chooses, he’ll allow someone to cross; if not, he will delay or refuse permission.

We don’t approach but two soldiers come to us.  They have no idea who we are and ask whether we’re allowed to park here.  After we explain they leave us alone and return to the checkpoint.

Traffic is light; inspections aren’t consistent.  Sometimes the crossing is quick and sometimes the driver is made to get out of the car and open the trunk.  Palestinians stop their cars at the line on the road and wait for the soldier to wave them forward.  The soldiers delay for a minute or two, sit conversing at the entrance to the booth.  This slight delay makes clear to all – to the soldiers, the Palestinians, and at this moment to us as well – who’s in charge here and who must do what they’re told.

A bus with a sign “Birthright” arrives at the checkpoint.  We didn’t see the passengers.  It’s delayed a few minutes at the checkpoint so the soldier can telephone and check, and then it crosses toward Area A on the West Bankwhere three large signs prohibit entry to Israelis.

16:30  Hamra checkpoint. 

We saw passengers getting out of the vehicles and going through the checkpoint on foot, saw them exiting the checkpoint holding their belts in their hands after being required to remove them in front of the soldier, and we were told that here, unlike the Tayasir checkpoint, Palestinian passengers are not permitted to remain in their cars when crossing to the Jordan Valley.

16:50  Ma’aleh Efrayim checkpoint.

Unmanned.

06.20  A'anin Agricultural CP

At the moment 50-60 people are waiting at the lower gate of the CP. The inspection is going on at the gate in the middle. Many complain that last Thursday at six thirty, they locked the CP while 30 people were still waiting to go through (as was reported). Today, the soldiers waited patiently until the last of those waiting left the CP.

Today none was allowed to transport containers with olive oil to the seamline zone; nor olives. They did not allow the transportation of whitewash for the olive trees. The farmer who tried to protest and explained that the containers of oil are not his, was scolded bitterly and, as he told us, the soldiers threatened to to take away his permit if he continues 'to argue'. 

The people leave the CP with numbers, for the sake of  order. At 06.35 a man with the number 60 leaves and after another quarter of an hour, a man with the number 85 emerges and tells us that another 35 people are waiting.

07.15 Tura-Shaked CP

The school children have already gone through to school on the West Bank.

The CP is closed down for a few moments because the electricity 'fell'. (If the names of people are not  saved in the computer, it is as if they have not left through this CP.) This time the passage is slow, because  people enter the pavilion one at a time.

7.40 A., the man who always smiles, comes out. Today he is angry: "Is this how you safeguard the security of your state? Since 07.00 o'clock I have been waiting here."  We are told that on the side with the queue another 40 people are waiting.

08.00 Barta'a-Reihan CP

Those going through are swallowed into the terminal. Someone says that they  go through quickly only when we are here. 'Sometimes they let us 'dry out' before they open the gates for us'. They have closed the entrance for the vehicles on their way to Ya'abed, from the road that leads to the Dothan CP. They claim that children throw stones on patrols of the IDF in the area and that is at the expense of the entire population.  

Translator:  Charles K.

08:30 – 13:30

Overall there’s no military presence today and the occupation routine continues with all its might.

Meitar crossing

Four buses with relatives of prisoners are on their way out.  The parking lot is full; many people are looking for Sylvia.

Highway 317

We went into a school in the Palestinian locality of Suosiya.  They’d worked on the road which was now relatively easy to drive on.  Autumn crocuses and new grass sprout – a festival for the sheep.

The teachers complain, justifiably, that every morning on their way to school from Yatta the soldiers (now reservists, apparently) come down and detain them.  Each time they’re asked for their teaching certificates and are always yelled at.  We’ll try to get there at around 07:30 to see.  The principal was in Ramallah today; his replacement approached us with a girl who was afraid to look us in the eye.  Her mother and father had been beaten by settlers!!  No hug from another Israeli does any good in a situation like this.

Highway 356

We went to the village of Darat, a short distance beyond the garbage dump, before Zif junction.  A magnificent house was demolished there yesterday that had been built six months ago.  Other houses nearby had already received demolition orders in 2004 but nothing happened.  There’s a kindergarten behind the demolished house.  The whole village is in contact with an attorney from Bethlehem who’s dealing with these matters.  The “logic” behind the demolition is that the buildings were on private property and hadn’t received permits because they weren’t included in the village “authorized outline plan”…but of course, the village doesn’t have an “authorized outline plan.”  And does anyone really believe that if they’d asked for a permit they’d have received one?  You can see the real reason at this link: http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.1873365#.ULNHNXiSAS4.facebook

We met locals who told us a white jeep from the Civil Administration had come this morning and photographed all the buildings in the neighborhood.

We gave them our telephone numbers in case something else occurs, and drove on.

Hebron

Children coming out of school… Again we see the wheelchairs of the girls from the Al-Fahiyya school and the teachers coming through the narrow opening at the Tarpa”t checkpoint…  There’s nothing new under the sun, nor, except for a tour by supporters of the settlers, are there any tourists.

One’s heart aches