Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Tue 6.5.08, Morning
Translation: Hanna K.
Tuesday, evening of the remembrance day, something sad is already in the air...
In the Marda village there is no blockage, the gate is open but a hummer with one soldier stands nearby (when we returned two and a half hours later he wasn't there anymore).
Za'tara -
No cars coming from the west are waiting. There are aobout 40 cars coming from the north,
which pass at an acceptable pace.
At the square a van is being checked while its ten passengers sit on the side and wait that the dog will stop sniffing.
Beit Furik -
The soldiers greet us with acceptable politeness, and let the few cars entering and leaving pass quickly and without delays.
From time to time a wave of pedestrians arrives and they pass very quickly, although only one station is manned.
Huwwara -
We arrive at approximately 8:30, there were about 50 cars waiting to pass. There are two manned checking stations , the soldiers and girl soldiers behave politely and quietly, not all the people are required to perform the "striptease dance" some are even not asked to take of their belts (we did not succeed understanding according to which law, perhaps arbitrarily, perhaps just by chance).
The soldiers which greeted us in an acceptable way, took great care that we should not pass the white line (which almost does not exist anymore) but beyond that they don't care about anything. We walked around, saw everything we wanted to see, there wasn't any detainee or prisoner. The vehicles passed without any delay, except one car with press signs drawn by hand on its plate which did indeed seem quite fabricated, and they were not allowed to enter.
The DCO representative H., who usually is rather indifferent and very uncommunicative (although at the beginning he came up to us and introduced himself) claimed that they won't pass because since a long time they try to pass every day and don't do anything to obtain the required authorization.
An empty truck is delayed, its driver tries to explain something to H., in Arabic. We don't understand anything and H. does not volunteer to translate for us.
Anyway, until we left, half and hour later, he was still there, on the side.