Huwwara, Jit, Za'tara (Tapuah), Thu 27.5.10, Afternoon
15:00 Ariel, on the way to As Sawiya:
We entered Ariel from the Rosh Ha'ayin road, drove the length of the town, and left on the east side. It's quite interesting to drive through a large, well developed settlement.
It gives one a perspective that we don't have in our day to day activism.
15:20 As Sawiya:
We drove to As Sawiya in order to deliver clothes, sound equipment. and other things for the school there which our friend Sami had collected in the few days that he had been in Tel Aviv. Since we were already there we decided to talk with some of the people. By chance, we met a very elegantly dressed young man in a dark blue pin-striped suit. (He asked us how we liked his new suit from Amman.)
He came to talk to us as soon as he saw us. He is A. a journalist and part of the staff of the Ministry of Welfare in the Palestinian Authority. He is also an active member of "Shvil Hazahav" for coexistence and peace. The talk was about the harrasment the villagers suffer from the nearby settlement, Eli.
Although the situation of As Sawiya has been known for some time, we, personally, were unaware of the fact that the Civil Administration
has given notice to 48 families in the village that their houses will be demolished because they were built without permits from the Civil Administration.
This is ununderstandable! Houses that were built on private land within a village, for families of the village, are to be demolished by the occupation forces.
Do the Palestinians get the permits when they request them? What security issue is at stake if someone in a village builds a house for his family on his land? The injustice of it is mind-boggling!
As A. said, "All we want is justice, law and equality."
16:00 Za'tara:
There is heavy traffic from the direction of Nablus, but the vehicles are going through the checkpost without any checking.
16:05 Huwwara:
The air in the area was so thick with dust that it was difficult to even open our eyes, the weather was terrible. At the checkpoint the vehicles were going in both directions with no checking.
16:35 Jit Junction:
On one side a military jeep was parked at the side of the road. On the other side stood a huge shovel-dozer. Nadim suggested that they were either going to build an earth-barrier somewhere, or they were going to take one away. We couldn't tell which.
we continued to Azzun