Ahmad Zahara, age 24, taxi driver
I live in Yatta. For the last three years I have worked as a taxi driver. I drive a service taxi. Before the outbreak of the [second] Intifada I worked on the Yatta-Hebron route. I used to take passengers through the Hebron industrial area on the southern edge of the city, and from there to the bypass-road. At the beginning of the Intifada, the Israeli army closed off the southern entrance to Hebron, called the al-Fahs intersection, with piles of dirt and boulders. They also closed off all the roads connecting Yatta and Hebron. As a result, all of the drivers working that route, including myself, couldn't go between Yatta and Hebron. We could only get so far as the checkpoint, so we would drop the passengers off there. The passengers would cross to the other side of the checkpoint where there were other taxis that would take them where they wanted to go.
A couple of days ago, the Israeli army opened up the road between Hebron and the bypass-road, next to the Beit Hagai settlement and opposite Khirbet Qalqas. They also opened up the Hebron-Nabie Yunes road, that connects to highway 60, to the west of Halhul. As a result, a number of taxi drivers began traveling that route between Hebron and Yatta, so they wouldn't have to deal with the roadblock at the al-Fahs junction. This route is also more profitable because the drivers charge five shekels instead of two and a half.
Today, 12 August, around 7:10 AM, I was taking seven passengers, including a 65 year old man, from Yatta to Hebron. I was traveling along the bypass road across from Khirbet Qalqas. I wanted to cross the bypass-road by way of the entrance that had been opened up by the army a few days earlier. When I got there I saw an army jeep and two taxis that the soldiers had pulled over in the middle of the road. I waited behind the two taxis for the soldiers to finish inspecting the passengers' IDs.
After a short while, two soldiers came up to my taxi. They demanded that the passengers and I get out, and they took our IDs and the keys to my taxi. The two soldiers shouted at us to sit down in the dirt, facing towards the sun. We sat down, and
other taxis starting driving up. I started counting the taxis that drove up, and counted seventeen taxis that came from the same direction I had come from and fifteen that had come from the other side of the checkpoint. The soldiers went up to the taxi drivers, confiscated their keys and IDs and their passengers' IDs. I know some of the drivers that were pulled over, including 'Umar a-Shawahin, Muhammad a-Shrite, and Iyad Abu 'Ali, all of them from Yatta.
Until 8:30 AM the soldiers continued confiscating IDs and keys from the people that arrived. Then the four soldiers took all the keys and the IDs, got into the jeep and drove off. Before they left, one of the soldiers approached me and told me not to move an inch or he would come to my house and shoot me.
After the jeep had left, I called the Civil Administration. I told them what had happened to us and they said that they would look into the incident. Around 10:00 AM, a white jeep drove up with two people in it - one of them was tall, heavy-set, with a dark complexion and short hair, and wore uniform. The other was wearing civilian clothing. The first man calmed us down and said that the soldiers that had confiscated the IDs and keys would be back soon and would return our belongings to us. Then they left.
We waited until about 12:15 PM, but the jeep did not come back. We decided to go to the Civil Administration. When we got there, the commander in charge came up to the gate and gave us back our keys and IDs. After that, I decided I wouldn't drive from Yatta to Hebron any more, and instead I would take passengers from the parking lot in Hebron to the al-Fahs checkpoint. In other words, I would only go half the way.
I think that what happened to us, and what happens almost every day at the same place, is very strange and absolutely incomprehensible. Why does the Israeli army open the road up, while at the same time continue to stop those who drive on it?
Ahmad Muhammad Abu Zahara, age 24, is married and the father of three. Ahmed works as a taxi driver and is a resident of Yatta, Hebron District. The testimony was given to Musa Abu Hashash at the al-Fahs checkpoint near Hebron on 12 August 2003.