Hebron, South Hebron Hills, Tarqumiya, Wed 13.7.11, Afternoon
Guests: Orit and Ronit .
Translator: Charles K.
11:30-15:00
Route 35
heavy traffic, many trucks.
Entering Kiryat Arba goes very smoothly.
Giv’at Avihai on our right – the same (perhaps they’re not the same) 6-7 mobile homes.
Hebron
To our guests’ “benefit” we went up again (we’d been there a long time ago) to Beit HaMeriva [house of quarrel. tran.] to see what it looks like now -- it, and the checkpoints next to and above it.
Goods are being transferred from a pickup truck to a donkey on the other side.
Curve 160, Pharmacy checkpoint, Shuhadeh Street: a few children and women on the streets – some on foot, some on donkeys, some on bicycles.
Tarpa”t checkpoint – 3 soldiers. Female tourists also cross.
On the way up from Tel Rumeida a group of soldiers erecting a new wire fence, overlooking all of Hebron and its shopping center.
Tel Rumeida checkpoint – 2 soldiers who seem calm, and also tell us it’s quiet here.
At ‘Abed’s (near the Cave of the Patriarchs) – a tour bus, most of the passengers from Canada, accompanied by Z’licha, the Palestinian guide. It’s interesting to hear her explanation, in fluent English, about the difficult situation here…
After visiting ‘Azam – we’re on our way home, but at the Tarqumiyya crossing we become detainees
with no explanation at all.
And when we try to find out what’s going on, and ask to contact Zion or Dudu, who are in charge here – the guy in the inspection booth shuts the window in our face and doesn’t reply.
Only after we protested, two replacements(?) arrived, inspected the contents of the bags of vegetables-pitas-labaneh-coffee we’d bought (maybe some little explosive device is hidden within?), and released us to our way.
It should be noted that this is the second time we’ve been detained here. And we also note that a man wearing a yarmulke who arrived immediately after us was not even asked to show an ID card.