Tarqumiya

Tarqumiya, Wednesday 16.2.05, PM Watchers: Linda G. and Evelien v.W.(reporting) We arrived at 4.15,and found a long line of waiting Palestinians, at least fifty people waiting to hand over their papers, at a slow pace since the soldier wrote down their identification.A friendly representitive from the Matak told us that the first fifty persons passing have to be registered,after this the soldiers can do as they please,we watched indeed a irregular happening,about four hundred man passed till we left [at 5.30], most just walked over, sometimes the soldiers ordered them again to stand in a line and started to cheque.From the Matak soldier we heard that the soldier who got in a fight with a Palestinian worker on a sundaymorning about two weeks ago got a reprimand.Big Lorry's and trucs passed over to the Israelian side, and many "alte sachen" cars ,at least 7, went loaded with goods to the Palestinian side. From the Palestinians we got a few complaints about what what happened in the morning, they told us about having to wait for two hours to pass, about beeing held up altogether by hundreds. Complaints were also made about the situation at the bureau of the Matak in Hebron were one has to come at four o'clock in the morning to take ones place the line to renew a permit, and often this may take a few of these days to get one.This seems worse than the old times when we in Israel sat for long hours in the misrad ha pnim to get a pasport. The soldiers when asked said they knew of this very difficult situation and advised us to try to change this. Anyway many expectations to Machsomwatch,and an afternoon at Tarkumia that showed the need to bear witness to all the participants of this daily ritual.