'Awarta, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Tue 9.6.09, Morning

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Observers: 
Nomi L., Edna C. (reporting)
Jun-9-2009
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Morning
Seriously? Does this make us safer?

Translation: Hanna K.

 

At Za'tara the third Intifada began and it is different than the preceding ones. When we arrived at the parking lot of the CP, we saw about seven Palestinians sitting on the sidewalk. They told us that they were laborers from Nablus, and that they set out in a taxi to work at Mes'ha. They were asked to alight from the car and a girl dog trainer, with a dog came to check the car.
The driver doesn't allow a dog to enter his car. The Israel Defence Forces insist. So now they sit for about half an hour, they are late for work and are waiting for a solution. The driver suggested to dismantle the entire vehicle himself, just to prevent a car from entering it. The commander, young and decisive, knows that there is only one remedy for the bomb that the Palestinian carries in the taxi together with the workers: a dog.From time to time the commander arrives with one soldier or two. They take out everything from the luggage compartment, and from under the seats. They return everything. But the commander is not so innocent as all that. He know that the hidden bomb can be found only by the dog. And the Palestinian says: I have a religion, I have a belief. According to my belief it is not allowed to have a dog in the car.

What is amazing is that they did not put handcuffs on him. They bound his eyes and made a dog enter the vehicles, by hook and by crook.
After one hour's wait the distributed the papers of the workers, and only the driver remained in the area, together with his insistence.

We thought that perhaps is embarrasses the commander to release him in our presence without the checking of the girl dog-trainer as long as we were there. After all, the capitulation of the army as opposed to the insistence of one man. We took the driver's phone number and drove away, not before we expressed our admiration at his stand. Half an hour later we were told on the phone that he was released. 

How long and in what way would the occupation persist if his stand would be adopted by more and more Palestinians?

At Huwwara the parking lot isn't full. It seems that there are reliefs in the entrance and exit of cars to and from Nablus. There are no queues at the pedestrians' barrier and the vehicles' barrier is not crowded either.
Hamudi, the CP child who sells sweets comes to tell us that his elder brother, 15 years old, has been arrested. The army took him to an unknown destination. Hamudi's mother too arrived at the CP. She was told that her son is at the Awarta DCO.
We took her to Awarta, naturally not via the short way that is allowed to Israelis only, but via the long way, through the village of Awarta. She entered, and luckily for her and for us, she emerged ten minutes later. One has to go to the Nablus DCO, inside Nablus, there she will be told what goes on with her son. We drove her and her worried face to the Nablus DCO. Don't think for a minute that we took the short route that takes three minutes and is forbidden for Palestinians. Again we drove 20 minutes in the roundabout way. We let her get off the car at the Huwwara CP and she entered to look for her son.