'Azzun, Habla, Mon 10.10.11, Morning

Share:
Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Email
Place: 
Observers: 
Shoshana Z., Nina S. (reporting), Translator. Judith Green
Oct-10-2011
|
Morning

06:30:  Habla passage for vehicles, donkeys, tractors, and many workers have already gone through.  The process is at the usual speed of about 20 in 13 minutes.  The soldiers are polite. A Palestinian turned to us with a complaint that they don't allow him to bring vegetables from Habla to people in Arab Ramadin (he is one of them).  We spoke with the checkpoint commander and the military police who said that it is allowed to bring vegetables, but not meat and other materials.  The Palestinian decided to try again on the next day to check whether or not they would allow him.

06:50 The school buses arrived and went through quickly.

07:17: Jayyus The gate was open and a few tractors were going through, people with carts and whole families with olive harvesting equipment.

The Ecumenical Volunteers which we met there said that the gate opened a few minutes before 7 and a relatively large number of people passed through, considering it was the pre-harvest period.  At 07:30 a donkey arrived, laden with harvest equipment, with an adult and a young boy.  The soldiers waited for them until they passed through and then closed the gate. We returned and traveled by way of  'Azzun, Sineriyah to Mascha, in order to meet the man who was supposed to bring us money for the lawyer who took his case concerning a debt owed to the police.  He is from Zaviah, and told us that some of his family received permission to travel to the olive harvest by way of the Dan Gate, but not everyone who had requested a permit, received it.  We met a taxi driver who also owned an area on the other side of the fence.  In order to reach it, he had to travel from Zaviah by way of Mascha, Bidiah, Sineriya, Beit Amin, to 'Azzun Atma - that is, a huge detour, in order to go through the 'Azzun Atma  gate, south of his land.  He complained a lot about the treatment of the soldiers at the 'Azzun Atma checkpoint, who humiliate them and are thoughtless.  When he arrived at the checkpoint with his 70 year old mother, they forced her to stand in a long line of workers and didn't allow her to join the shortened line;  and all this was done in a very unpleasant manner. Also the Ecumenical Volunteers said that they had been summoned by the council of 'Azzun Atma to come in the morning, during the pressured period, because there were a lot of problems at this checkpoint..  We suggest to anyone who can arrive in the early morning hours (between 06:00 - 07:30) to do it, in order to observe and report what is happening there.  We will do this next week.

-- 

.