'Anabta, Ar-Ras, Irtah, Jubara (Kafriat), Tue 27.11.07, Morning
Irtah 07:00
At this relatively late hour there are still quite a few workers waiting for their transport, though most of them are out of the facility, that opened at 04:30. We didn't hear any complaints.
Jubara and A-Ras 07:10-07:40
The new reserve soldiers manning the checkpoint call their command, and wave us in. At gate 753 (up the village) a group of agricultural workers carrying permits enter the village. The schoolbus arrives from Tulkarm to collect the waiting children.
At A-Ras traffic is sparse, checking cursory.
Anabta 07:50-08:20
Most vehicles pass without checking. While we were there 2 taxis were stopped, either at random or because the passengers were young people. Their IDs were checked quickly by the computer.
Funduk village 10-11:15
(back from Beit Iba) We stopped at Funduk. Sarah had made an appointment with Ali, an inhabitant of Funduk, to collect a disk of photos recording the damages done by the settlers three days ago. What we saw, and this after some of the damage has been fixed, is the result of a veritable pogrom done by settlers and backed up by soldiers, border policemen and regular policemen. According to the witnesses there were 100-150 rioters, arriving by buses and cars.
We visited some private homes and some workshops. At one house we saw all the windows smashed and covered with blankets. A little girl who was sleeping in her bed was hit on the head by a stone and started bleeding. The 3 children of this family are still afraid to go to school and have been staying since at their grandmother's in Hajah. Their mother was standing there, crying. Her husband showed us a plateful of uneaten food: she won't eat.
Outside, the owner of the house has collected the stones thrown at them in a pile. There was a settler on horseback who used his rifle butt to break windows.
At the neighbouring house, his uncle's, the same damage. The people there were hiding while all this happened.
Near the marble workshop shards of glass from car windows are still strewn all over the place, and marble plates are broken to pieces. At the mosaics workshop similar damage. According to the people, soldiers lit the area with flares.
At Ali's carpentry shop they broke the door and the windows. We saw the cracked windshield and damaged body of his van.
From the upper floor of next door a woman hailed us. Her husband threw back a stone at the people downstairs, the soldiers burst in through neighbouring roofs, shooting, and arrested him. He hasn't been back since. Sarah noted the names of 3 people who had been arrested and we gave them the number of Hamoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual.
According to Ali and his friends not all the soldiers took part in the pogrom, and yesterday the army prevented another such event.
Later today a visit from Yesh Din, who deal with attacks by settlers, is expected.