Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Sun 8.11.09, Afternoon
Translation: Tal H.
Due to a serious problem with our car on the way to the checkpoints, just before the entrance to Ariel, we ran into a long delay. Considering this, and the fact that it becomes dark very early these days, we devoted most of the hour and a half of light we had left after our replacement vehicle arrived, and after witnessing the smooth flow of traffic in both checkpoints, and the usual canine drooling on the seats of the random-checked car, we chose to show our stunned guests the blocked entrances to Palestinian villages along the ethnically separated highway and other roads, the non-existent Palestinian locality names on road signs, explained what and how we see and witness and document of the apparatus of denying Palestinians their free movement in their own areas, and as always, we didn’t need to explain too much for them to understand the relevancy of our purely Israeli accents and our yellow Israeli license plate to the fact that we were totally ignored at the entry checkpoint (‘border crossing’ Shaar Shomron) on our way back into Israel.
On our way into the Territories, we counted many dozens of cars waiting to be checked coming from Nablus. We hurried to call the army hotline and report this, and as usual they promised to look into it and hurry things along…
Our guests who are very informed about the goings on here in general and the Occupation in particular mediated by the mass-media and personal ties with colleagues in Israel expressed their profound appreciation of Machsomwatch and thanked the organization warmly for facilitating their joining us on our vigil, to see with their own eyes what they had so far only heard and read about.
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