Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Tue 25.12.07, Morning
Guests: Ruti and Yonatan
Translation: Suzanne O.
Za'atra/Tapuach Junction
8:20 a.m.
There are no cars. There is no roadblock at Yitzhar Junction.
Beit Furiq
About 12 cars queue on the other side of the road. Not many cross at the roadblock. The soldiers, as always, open only one lane for cars to cross. Thus one car crosses into Nablus and then another car leaves. The drivers must pull up at a distance of a few metres from the soldiers, alight from their cars, lift their shirts and turn around, and then to go to the soldiers and show their documents. When they have received permission they return to their cars and cross. The whole procedure takes time and is carried out slowly. Although we saw that for some of the time four soldiers are present, constantly busy talking, there was no attempt to open up the additional lane.
When we approached the soldiers they asked us to go back across the white line, i.e.: on the other side of the roadblock shed, which does not allow us to see what is going on at the roadblock itself. We did not wish to start a commotion and so agreed to the request. One of the soldiers actually followed us and demanded that we cross to the other side of the road. This was too much. We did not move and this time he, apparently, decided not to cause a commotion.
The DCO officer came over to talk to us and explained that it is a new brigade, they have only been at the roadblock two weeks, and the commander is putting together his ‘security package'.
Huwwara
9:10 a.m.
The traffic entering and leaving is fairly heavy. It looks as if there is a queue of 20 - 30 people. There are two checkpoints and a humanitarian point. No one is imprisoned or detained. The roadblock commander, Dotan, is polite and relaxed, and seems to have a positive influence on the soldiers' work. Here too we are visited by Tarek from the DCO, who demonstrates for us, at the request of Nadim, ‘queue shortening': he brings ‘out of the queue' the husband of a young woman who is holding a baby
and who has been standing waiting for him for a long time.
10:10 a.m.
On the way back: there is no roadblock at Yitzhar. There is a police roadblock by Jit Junction.