A few fireworks went
off afternoon on 23 Nov in Huwarra. A little while later all kinds of
occupation forces and vehicles showed up. Apparently a settler had
reported he heard gun fire, or was shot at, as they passed through
Huwarra. Of course the opinion of a passing settler is taken over
the opinion of a dozen Palestinians who were present to see the burst
of the fireworks.
We stood where we
could watch what was happening and be seen watching, to witness. The
occupying forces had congregated around one house, apparently they
wanting to talk to the owner who wasn't there (and probably wasn't
there when the fireworks wee set off).
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| Waiting for someone who is not home to answer the door |
A 6 occupation
soldiers walked north away from the general group to a place where
the road is even with a shop roof and took up a position there
watching both roads. The shop owner may or may not consent, but this
is a roof they can get on to without forcing entrance past a family.
 |
| You would think they might not setup directly under the Mosque |
From here the
stopped a young male Palestinian asked for identification and
questioned him. They let a couple of cars and a woman go by with out
stopping them.
 |
| Guilty of living while being a male Palestinian |
We took some
pictures and notes. There was a man in a light blue civilian shirt
wearing a new olive drab bullet proof vest mixing and talking with
the occupation soldiers. This looked to us like a settler. We took a
picture which would have included the settler. Then three occupation
soldiers came after us and demanded that the photo be deleted. Even
after it was deleted he demanded to see the camera – standing right
against the young international woman with the camera and cocked his
weapon in a very threatening way (as if cocking a weapon is ever not
threatening). Then another occupying soldier snatched the camera from
her hand. As they walked away with the camera with us following, one
of the soldiers said, you will get it back. To improve the odds of
getting it back I followed along and to push the envelope in walked
among the soldiers to the person they handed the camera to. He was
wearing a uniform and a skullcap, but it was not standard issue
uniform and it had no rank or unit identity on it, so I assumed he
was a settler too. Palestinians thought both people I thought were
settlers might be part of the intelligence unit. He demanded what I
was doing and I said they had told us we would get the young lady's
camera back so I was just saving someone from having to carry it
back. He made some comment like he would smash the camera if he
wanted to. After looking through the pictures on the camera he
returned it. To our surprise he had not deleted all the pictures he
had not even deleted the pictures of the other soldiers.
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| Armored vehicle apparently used as a headquarters for this opperation |
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