Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Thu 14.8.08, Afternoon
Translation: Ruth F.
14:35- Za'tara-
There were about 20 vehicles on the south with 3 active inspection posts, one of which was for Israelis only. A driver told us that the average waiting time was of 15 minutes. They mostly just checked IDs.
Traffic was flowing.
The blue police pulled over three Palestinian cars for a thorough inspection of their IDs, breaks, lights, safety seat belts ect... We went over there meanly because the passengers of the first transit that was pulled over kept yelling. Some passengers signaled us with their hands to come over and a young man told us that the police men were about to collect a large sum of money from them. The police men conducted a long inspection (over 40 minutes), as part of it they got in the vehicle, inspected it, and one of the police men even drove it in the lot. The transit driver (who was old) and the passengers seemed desperate and helpless. We had a feeling that the police men were trying with all their might to find something wrong with the vehicle. And indeed, the two vehicles we had observed were given fines (according to the hand movement of the passenger we learned that they even got fines because some elder women didn't put their seat belts on). We looked closely at what the police men were doing and called the DCO to ask whether they were behaving properly. The replay was yes and that the same rules go for Israelis.
From what we saw there was no way that they would pull over Israeli cars. They passed quickly in a separate lane without any inspections.
15:25- Huwwara-
About 120 Palestinians were waiting in the shed. There were three inspection posts and one "Humanitarian line". They said they had been waiting for about 20 minutes. There were no detainees
and everything seemed to be calm. A captain from the DCO help us with the small issue were brought before him.
16:00- Beit Furik-
Few people were passing on both sides. There were few cars heading out of Nablus. We didn't see any car heading into Nablus.
16:30- Huwwara-
There were about 70 people in the shed.
At 17:00, when we left, the line grew smaller.
17:15- Za'tara-
There were about six cars from the east and no cars from the south or at the parking lot (the "blues" have probably reached their fin quota for the day...)