Tarqumiya

Tarqumiya, Monday 7/2/05, AMObservers: Helee and Aviva (reporting)We arrived at 5:35 AM in the pouring rain. Everyone was going through as they arrived with no delay. Some of the people waited under the shelter on the Palestinian side, and the soldiers thought they were waiting for their OK. They told me that with the weather like it was, they would go home; they don't have work when it rains. They work for Coca-Cola in B'nei Brak.One of the men told me that he was also hit by the soldier who beat a Palestinian on the 30th of January in the morning (when there were no MachsomWatch observers standing by.) He told me that he answered back to this soldier telling him that he won't take that from him. that even his father didn't beat him. All of this behavior was the soldiers' reaction to the men talking among themselves and not standing in a straight line... and one man sitting on a boulder while the line was being held upAfter a few minutes a family from Eid'na (over the hill from Tarqumiya), came to the shelter and waited for the Red Cross busses to arrive on the Palestinian side. While we were waiting, the father, who came with two of his daughters, and one young son, told me that they were going to visit his son. He has "only two", but seven children. When the busses arrived and the rain let up, we walked over to them, and helped them with the supplies they were bringing him. Five busses heading for the Negev parked and waited for their Israeli counterparts. All in all, around 350-400 workers passed without hassle, and we said our goodbyes to the families, the men waiting to connect with their rides to work on the Israeli side, and at 7:15 were on our way home.