Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Sun 9.3.08, Morning

Translation:  Suzanne O. 

Za’atra roadblock

7:40 a.m. 
There are no cars from the west.There are 30 cars from the direction of Nablus. 
7:55 a.m.
We received a telephone call from Zachariah who reported that he had been phoned by a teacher from the school in Huwwara saying that the army are in the school.We, on our way to Beit Furiq, turn around and drive to the school.We did not come across any soldiers near the school.  We entered the grounds, met a few teachers and while we were talking to them we saw a parent taking his three children out of the school because he worried about their safety.
The vice principal joined us and invited us into his office.  There, in the presence of a number of teachers, he told us:
According to him at 7:30 a.m. soldiers arrived in front of the school grounds and stopped pupils and teachers from entering for half an hour.At this point the army is not present but, as the teachers claim (or fear), soldiers are spread out in the area.  According to them the army’s reaction is due to someone (or some people) who threw stones.  Due to the situation less than 100 out of a possible 500 pupils have come to school today.
While we are still in the vice principal’s office there are telephone calls from parents asking whether they should send their children to school.The teachers also confide in us that they are more worried about the settlers than the soldiers.
Later on the DCO representative in Huwwara told us that it was not stones that were thrown but molotov cocktails.
The teachers also told us that this morning soldiers went into a (yellow) house near the school and beat the owner and her son. 

Beit Furiq roadblock
8:40 a.m. 
Very few pedestrians.The waiting drivers are furious; they claim that the inspections are exaggeratedly slow.
The crew and their commander are as hostile towards us as is the tradition at this roadblock.
9:20 a.m.
It is our impression that the inspections have accelerated during the last quarter of an hour, an impression that was reinforced by one of the drivers with whom we talked. 
All of this goes on in the most pastoral of scenery.
Surreal. 

Huwwara roadblock
9:30 a.m. 
There are few people at the crossing.  The roadblock commander behaves politely.
A taxi driver came over to us and told us that yesterday, at 8:30 a.m., as he drove his taxi near Shiloh, settlers threw stones at him and smashed his windscreen.
We told the story we were told about the beating of the woman and her son by the teachers to the DCO representative.  He contacted the school principal and suggested that he advise the woman to report the incident to the DCO. 

Za’atra roadblock
10:45 a.m. 
There are no cars.