'Awarta, Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Mon 13.7.09, Afternoon

Za’tara

We went through the checkpoint at 1515 on the way to Huwwara and at 1620 on the way back. There were few cars waiting on the Huwwara side and no cars on the Road 5 side.

Huwwara

We arrived at the checkpoint at 1520 and stayed until 1545.

There is a new sign on the approach to the checkpoint informing cars of entry to zone A.

The pedestrian checkpoint is deserted and locked. The parking lot is also deserted of taxis, passengers and traders.

We asked the soldiers how pedestrians are supposed to cross and did not get an answer.
We met Magdi and he said that pedestrians going in can do this freely through the carousel but no pedestrians are allowed out. They have to board one of the taxis.

Two cars, one exiting and one entering met at the parking lot to give something to each other. One soldier rushed to tell them they are not allowed to use the parking although we were parked there. We enquired about this and were told that parking is only allowed for cars with Israeli number plates. So now, in addition to apartheid roads, we get apartheid parking lots. Later we saw a taxi that entered the parking also being sent away.

The cars checkpoint was fairly quiet and there were about 10 cars on each side moving quickly with random checks.

We saw an Israeli car entering and asked the soldier if all Israeli cars are allowed in. He said yes. So we boarded the car and proceeded to the checkpoint to check if this was true. We were stopped and when we said that we were told we are allowed to enter, the soldier said he checked again with his commander and found out that only Arab Israelis are allowed.

 Awarta

We did not see any cars crossing.

 Beit Furik

We arrived at the checkpoint at 1550 and stayed a few minutes.

We did not see any cars crossing.

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