Tarqumiya, PM

Tarqumiya Monday afternoon, 26.1.2004 MachsomWatchers: Linda G., Mira B., Hagit B. (reporting) We arrived at 3 p.m. – there were almost no workers returning today because only agricultural workers had been allowed to pass through in the morning.Problem: why are the workers only informed in the morning, after they have already arrived at the checkpost? Any why, according to one of the Palestinians who works in agriculture, were the workers in the building industry permitted to pass through the checkpost at Gush Etzion and not through the Tarqumiya checkpost? And who gave the order?Did you know that the only Licensing Bureau which transfers ownership of vehicles from Israeli ownership to Palestinian ownership is located at the Tarqumiya checkpost? People are coming to Tarqumiya from all over the West Bank to sort out vehicle licensing issues. The office opens and closes arbitrarily, at no fixed hours known to all the population. They are currently open on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 to 12 noon. They take an hour break and are then open between 1:00 p.m. and 2 p.m. There is a long line and they generally only get through about ten vehicles a day when the office is open.We met Abdulla Mesalem from Ramallah who bought a truck in Israel and wanted to transfer it to the Palestinian Authority and receive a Palestinian license number. After he got fed up with waiting at the District Liaison [IDF Civil Administration] Office in Beit-El, he took a driver with him from East Jerusalem with a blue [Israeli] ID card. He was able to bypass the checkposts by taking side roads and the driver passed all the checkposts. This is how they got to Tarqumiya. They have been trying to sort out the ownership issue at Tarqumiya for the last month and have not been successful. According to what they told us, the licensing clerk wants between NIS 800 and NIS 1,000 from them to transfer ownership. Whoever is able to pay, gets through. Even if this story is only half true, it is shocking. It seems to us that the arbitrariness of the opening of the office is perpetuating this terrible occupation.In my opinion we must raise this problem with the Civil Administration, and even with the O.C.