'Anabta, 'Awarta, Huwwara, Salfit Checkpoint, Te'enim Crossing, Za'tara (Tapuah), Sat 17.3.12, Morning

Nablusarea 17 March 2012

Translation: Suzanne O.

Salfit roadblock

9:50 a.m. 

There are, as usual, two soldiers at the roadblock, while we were here no cars passed through, we continued on.

Za'tara/Tapuach Junction

10:05 a.m. 

There is a jeep with soldiers in the car park, on the road itself there are neither soldiers nor police.  Traffic is heavy, as usual.

10:10 a.m.  At the entrance Beita a-tachta there is no roadblock.

We entered the village.  We continued on up to Beita el Fuka, we drove by Awarta and arrived at Akraba. 

The people are welcoming, happy to meet and talk to us.  We introduced ourselves and gave out visiting cards.

We were pleased to see a lot of factories, large and small, between the villages.

We thought it would be nice (and useful for livelihoods) if we (MachsomWatch) were to decide to divert some of our budget in a specific year to establishing some kind of necessary enterprise (possibly one employing mainly women?).

We returned via Road 6 to Za'tara/Tapuach Junction.

Za'tara/Tapuach Junction

11:00 a.m.

There are two soldiers on the road but they do not hinder the traffic.

At the entrance to Beita

11:05 a.m. 

Now there is a military jeep here, we didn't see a temporary roadblock (spikes) and a few minutes later the jeep drove off in the direction of Huwwara.

Huwwara roadblock

11:45 a.m. 

There are no soldiers, the traffic is heavy.

There is a huge hole in the road at the exit from Nablus and each car slows down and passes it carefully, it causes a fair size traffic jam.

Anabta roadblock

12:45 p.m. 

We didn't see any soldiers.

Children sell green almonds and the regular coffee seller is also here.

Kafriat/Te'enim roadblock

12:50 p.m. 

There aren't many cars.

Those entering Israel are inspected rigorously, which takes quite a few minutes.