Awarta, Beit Furik, Za'tara (Tapuah), Sun 15.6.08, Morning

Translator:  Charles K.

7:25  Zeita:  As usual, the road is blocked by cement cubes and an iron gate.

7:45  Za'tara/Tapuach: 
10 cars from the west.

At the north-south checkpoint - a new group of air force reservists.  3 lanes open.  32 vehicles on line.

8:15  Beit Furik: 
The parking lot is empty.  Three cars waiting.  We're told that the Palestinian police pulled 2000 cars  from Beit Furik and Beit Dajan off the road, and a taxi stand opened in Beit Furik, inside the village.

8:40  Awarta

No trucks entering, three cars exiting.

The parking lot is crowded, full of activity.  Lots of people going to Nablus, and sometimes there's a delay going through the turnstile. 

Three lanes open at the turnstiles.  40-50 people waiting.  A., the commander, tells us that the checkpoint was very crowded earlier.

9:35  An elderly women holding a month-old baby in her arms, has been waiting ten minutes or more for her son to go through the turnstile.

9:38  The son comes through.

9:50  A Palestinian who lives in Awarta comes over to us for help:  on the evening of 18.5.08 his ID card was taken from him in Shirat by a border policeman.  He was told that he'd get it back in Na'alin.  He went there, waited until 1 am and the ID wasn't found.  Since then he's gone there a number of times, to no avail - the ID card isn't there.  I ask T, the DCO representative, who's at the checkpoint, and he explains to the Palestinian that he has to get a new ID card.  Unfortunately, that's really what he must do, which involves, in addition to having to run around from place to place, a significant expense.

10:00 We leave the checkpoint.

10:45  At the entrance to Burin/Yitzhar there's a Hummer carrying soldiers, facing the settlement.

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