Huwwara, Saturday 20 March 2004Observers: Amalia W., Chava H., Sara A. colour=red>When we got to the petrol station at Eli, we called one of the drivers whose cabs were confiscated last Saturday at Salem checkpoint to find out if their vehicles had been returned to them as promised. In fact, they were returned yesterday.There were soldiers at the Tapuach junction checkpoint, where there were almost no pedestrians, but around 20 cars waiting in line.Our first glimpse of the southern end of the Huwwara checkpoint (the side for those wanting to go to Nablus) showed just how bad the situation was. Masses of people waiting, all one on top of another, a line of waiting cars and trucks , and over 50 detainees. We counted seven soldiers (some of them weren’t checking or letting people pass, but were instead busy with “security” which means that they stood there with their weapons aimed at those in the line). The place was in turmoil, with a lot of shouting going on and a sense that things were out of control. Most of those we tried to reach by phone aren’t available on Saturday [the sabbath] and that is a serious problem. Finally, Hadass from the Physicians for Human Rights, as well as the soldier on duty in the army’s Humanitarian Centre helped us get through to the Nablus DCO, and then we began to see some order emerging.Because the child Mohamed Koura’an was caught with a bomb at Huwwara checkpoint (or so the army says), and also because the army had apparently received many warnings [of impending terror attacks], the procedures for going through the checkpoint had been made more stringent. About a third of those between the ages of 16 to 35 were turned down. Al Najah University students were able to come through because their university coordinates with the army , but other students were turned back. We could not figure out just how consistent was the “rule” that one of them cited: “on Saturdays trucks are not allowed in Nablus”, or “on Saturdays there is no unloading of goods in Nablus”. It is also not clear just when this “enlightened” order was issued. Some of the trucks were sent with their loads to the so-called “back to back” checkpoint [where goods are off-loaded from the back of one lorry on to the back of a waiting lorry for the onward journey], but later on, trucks were allowed to pass. There was no problem with ambulances, or with the elderly and the handicapped. An old man and his wife approached a soldier checking at the checkpoint. The soldier opened the man’s identity card and found inside a NIS100 note.. He closed the I.D. and returned it to its owner, signalled him to continued and said: “Take the money. I don’t need your bribe.”Hardest of all was the problem of the detainees. Some of the dozens waiting on the checkpoint slopes (Get down,down! Get down,down! Yallah, Yallah!!! [shouted the soldiers]) burst out in fury and started yelling at the soldiers and for a moment it seemed they were going to lose control of themselves. Even our efforts to calm the atmosphere were met with anger. Some of the detainees were being held as a punishment or, rather, an “educational measure”, because they had tried to evade the checkpoint, to jump the line in some way before their turn came, or because they had yelled at or argued with the soldiers. Two or three of the detainees were on their knees and had their hands tied behind their backs. One of them , who was particularly “obstinate”, was led away to the far end of the field by two soldiers to “have a talk”.On the northern side of the checkpoint (for those coming from Nablus ) we encountered two women detainees, Israeli Arabs, one a Jerusalem resident and the other a Bedouin from Rahat. Both had two-year-old toddlers with them . The woman from Jerusalem had waited almost five hours for the Shin Bet to finish checking her and was almost in tears.Both women told us that they had had no problems going into Nablus, but that when they left the town the soldiers had stopped them suspecting that they had come in illegally. It was only after a series of telephone calls and a lot of talking and sincere efforts by the checkpoint commander and the DCO officer that they were eventually released together with many others. The commander told us that the Shin Bet worked very slowly (“they don’t hurry over there”) and that he too had more than once drawn attention to the problem. At the end of the shift we were presented with an unbelievable new concept: those on duty at the southern side of the checkpoint told us that because of the behaviour of the soldiers, the Palestinians call this “The Merciful Checkpoint”. Personally, I must say that the soldiers do indeed do this cruel job with restraint and do demonstrate that they understand that they are dealing with human beings. It is all relative!