'Azzun 'Atma, Sun 29.6.08, Morning
After reading the latest reports on Azun Atma we thought it important to go
there especially when there are many people there. Sunday morning, Wednesday, Thursday and Shabat afternoon. It is not really far. We left at 5.00 and at 7.30 we were already home before the traffic jams. We left the car at the greenhouses with the flags and took a taxi there and back.
Next to the road workers were standing and when we asked how the checkpoint
was today they said "Golden" as compared to previous days. The woman commander, Yarden whose good name goes before us and another 3 soldiers besides the military policemen who are in a closed booth . One only hears their voices over the microphones. Most of the traffic was going
into the village and mainly young men each one with his humble packet of food but there were also children between the ages of 10-12 and more. And all going out to make a living in Israel. They stand at the side of the road, afterwards go into a small yard where there are turnstiles which moves each time 5 people into the area. There so they
say IDs are checked on the computer and their bags go through the x-ray device. Private cars are entering the whole time each one more a wreck than the previous. Usually passengers have to stand in the pedestrian line. A family with 5 small children, one baby
of about a month. The
soldier sends the mother to be checked and she puts the baby on the seat. The men let her go through first and she comes through in a few minutes. But when Yarden was doing the checking she allowed an older woman of about 60 to remain seated in the car. Baggage compartments are opened.
6.20
When the line increased Yarden told one of the soldier to open another line and check IDs. And then another. She explained , apologising, that with the checking the people would lose a day of work. 15 minutes later there was no one left. Edna asks. When have we heard of a soldier who cares what happens to the Palestinians and who sees himself as a
servant of the public? But the driver who takes us to the other side of the village says that because of our presence things went swiftly today and so we should visit there. At 6.45 we leave.
At the other side of the village next to the bulldozers a car is not
allowed on t the road and many workers wait for transport. One says that a week a car his brother was very badly beaten at the checkpoint. When I ask if he wants to complain he says who will believe him, he is only a Palestinian, I found it hard to say he should believe in the
Israeli system of justice. On the other side of the road another man
of about 50 says that he was also badly beaten at Sira in the area of Nablus. Afterwards he was in hospital for 28 days. They came to him from Bestelem and he gave his testimony. Since then 5 years have passed
and nothing has happened. That is Israeli justice...