Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Mon 26.5.08, Morning

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Observers: 
Tzvia S, Rachel A. (reporting)
May-26-2008
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Morning

Translation: Suzanne O.


Za'atra     

6:45 a.m.

A coach is parked with all its passengers on board, their documents are inspected, then they are returned to their owners and the coach leaves.  This time the passengers were not required to alight.

On our way back at about 10:00 a.m., another coach with its passengers on board also waits for inspection of documents.

There is a large taxi and all its passengers have alighted and are waiting.  The driver is a little way away from them, sitting on the pavement; two soldiers stand opposite him with their weapons drawn.  There are a lot of soldiers around.  It appears that intelligence information has trapped a man suspected as an arms dealer.  He is taken from the taxi for interrogation by the Shabak and then to prison.  Meanwhile, there is a suspicion that there are dangerous substances in the taxi.  Therefore, a military police vehicle is brought in and with the help of the driver it is unloaded and the vehicle is taken apart with the aid of various screwdrivers.  We did not wait until the end of the inspection but we made the soldiers return their documents to the passengers so that they can continue their journey in another vehicle if they so wish.

N.B. If you suspected that someone was moved away from the vehicle lest there is a suspicion... well, not really.  The taxi driver was given a note from the soldiers requiring that he present himself for interrogation next week at the DCO.


Beit Furik

8:00 a.m. 

Routine is shattered.  An IDF helicopter appears from the south and lands in the field opposite us.  It loads soldiers on to it and takes off into the skies, and then returns for another round.  It looks like an exercise or an action that has been completed.  At the roadblock everything proceeds as normal.  There is no reference to what goes on at the side.


Huwwara

7:00 a.m. 

Not many people.  A taxi driver, a new friend we have met lately, tells us about the incident during which a Palestinian was killed last week at the roadblock.  According to the story the young man had a telephone with an earpiece connected by a wire and instead of a belt he had a piece of wire on which he had hung the telephone.  The soldiers shot and killed him and then blew his body up so that the truth would not come out.  Another young man at the roadblock tells us a similar story.  Later the commander tells us the Israeli version.  He was not present at the time but knew the precise details from his point of view.  The question of painful truths floats in the space of our existence daily and in these cases doubly so.

Near the roadblock ‘Braslav holy people' dance on and around their singing car.  The officer says he is not happy with it and they leave.  And then the female soldier at the roadblock sends Palestinians through while singing joyful Braslav songs.

After Beit Furik we returned to Huwwara for another hour.