'Azzun 'Atma, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Tue 1.12.09, Afternoon

Natanya translating.

A quiet day at the "deeper" checkpoints. At the seamline we found much activity and bragging (details at the end of the report).

Kif el Haris.
We went to see the new approach road which joins the village with road 5 if it is still close. We found the gate open. One of the residents of the village told us that the gate had been closed for a long time. The army claimed that someone had thrown stones on cars on the road near the village and so the village was being punished. Since Friday the gate had been opened.

At Beit Furik there were no soldiers at the sentry post. Only the New Jerseys (movable plastic barriers) blocked  one route and interfered with the flow of traffic in both directions.

At the checkpoint of Huwwara random checking of cars both at the exit and entrance. We saw that cars with Israeli licenses were allowed to enter and exit freely. At the entrance the checking was random and that of IDs, at the exit the driver had to open the baggage compartment and after a short search was allowed to go on.

The top checkpoint of Azzun Atma - much traffic because of the residents of the village returning from work. Now and again there were queues. When there was pressure the soldiers opened two posts so as to hurry up the checking. A man standing at the side of the checkpoint seemed to have been detained. The soldiers were most unhappy to see us and sent us away from the checkpoint, not allowing us to photograph and so we could not find out what the reason was. Some time after we arrived at the checkpoint at about 16.30 the man was freed and went back to the village. Before he left Macky got his phone number and later on, on the same evening he told Macky: He is the father of a child of 10 who has a malignant growth in his head. The child is having chemotherapy. In the early hours of the morning the child developed a high temperature. The parents phoned the hospital and they said to come immediately. At 7am the parents and the children came to the checkpoint and a taxi was waiting for them on the other side to take them to the hospital. The woman soldier who was at the checkpoint at that time was busy with a phone call. After they had waited some time the father went to the soldier and asked her to check them so that they could go on to the hospital as it was an emergency. As a result the three of them were kept waiting for 3 hours and after that the mother and child were allowed to go to the hospital. The father was detained at the checkpoint the whole day. He was freed some time after we arrived there and had been detained for 9 hours. When Macky asked him why he had not told us this when we were at the checkpoint he said that the commander had told him not to speak to us. It seems he is also scared to complain or to speak to the newpapers about this because the child at home is ill and any delay could cause his death.