Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Wed 24.3.10, Afternoon
Translator: Charles K.
15:10 Za’tara/Tapuach junction - 30 cars on line.
15:20 Huwwara
Traffic flows. About 6 vehicles on line from Nablus.
Soldiers made us go stand among the concrete blocks.
The chewing gum seller approaches us, two soldiers appear and make him leave.
They tell us that we’re not allowed to stand where we’ve always stood because the checkpoint is dangerous. (In order that we’ll really understand how dangerous it is, one of the soldiers points to his helmet and says that if it weren’t dangerous here he wouldn’t be wearing it.)
16:50 A flying checkpoint on the way to Beit Iba, next to the Generi nursery.
Four Palestinians stand with their back to their car; another, the driver, stands with the soldiers.
Four soldiers inspect the vehicle carefully.
The soldiers want us to move away, because it’s dangerous – we might be hit by passing cars.
After we refuse, they want us to stand on the other side of the road, jump over the fence and observe from there.
When we ask why they’re stopping cars, one of the soldiers answers that “he can tell” they’re suspicious.
He also claims that they stood with their backs to the car on their own initiative, not because the soldiers told them to.
Nadim converses surreptitiously with them. The five are from Tulkarm, out for a ride, and they have no idea why they were stopped. And, of course, the soldiers made them stand with their backs to the car.
The soldiers released them after about 15 minutes.
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