HUWWARA SOUTH , Wednesday 25 August 2004 MObservers: Debra L., Orli P., Liora S., Dafna B.,Amira I. (reporting)Guests: Veteran Machsomwatch members from Jerusalemcolour=red>Summary: There were no specials events: just the same arbitrary, endless detention of 15 to 30-year-olds without our being able to influence or relieve. This was extremely frustrating. We felt it was becoming very difficult to convince anyone to relieve, hurry procedures, be considerate! The lawless “laws” of lengthy waiting, of deciding who deserved to go home or to work, have become so deeply rooted, even with a checkpoint commander whose conduct was rather friendly and pleasant (both with us and, usually, with the Palestinians).We chose not to visit Beit Furiq, as our Jerusalem friends (Yehudit E., Michaela R., Hanna B., and Maya B-H.) had passed by on their way, and reported that things were moving along. We were joined by three Irish students who are editing a film on the goings-on in the Occupied Territories. They interviewed Dafna and shared with us the shocking experiences of their visit to Nablus and to the Askar refugee camp yesterday, and of the army’s activities there.14:00 — Arriving at the checkpoint we noticed a stressful atmosphere. A long line awaited checking. The soldiers ran around and had halted procedures because “there’s been an incident”. Some of them had blocked the parking area for 10 minutes and tried to make us leave. We intervened just once—to bring to their attention a mother carrying in her arms her 8-year-old son, who seemed to brain-damaged and unconscious. The soldiers let her ride through in one of the cabs. Later, we learned that the perpetrator of the “incident”, a taxi driver whom the soldiers had been looking for, had disappeared. So, in his stead, they detained another, and innocent, driver. The commander claimed this was not a punitive, but rather an investigative, measure.Sixteen detainees were awaiting their release [ detainees are, typically, men aged between 16 and 30 who do not have passage permits. Their ID details are relayed by the checkpoint soldiers to the General Security Services (GSS – aka the Shabak or the Shin Bet, the Hebrew acronym) which cross-checks them against a central list of security suspects and then relays the results back to the checkpoint; this process is cumbersome and can be further lengthened if the soldiers wait to accumulate a batch of ID cards before relaying them to the GSS, or if they are similarly tardy in handing back ID cards at the end of the process, before they release the detainees. Meanwhile the detained Palestinians are virtually held prisoner at the checkpoints since the soldiers hold their documents until GSS clearance comes through] . One of the detainees was a man who lived in Dubai and had come with his wife. She was let through, he was detained although he had passed the security check today at Allenby Bridge [the border crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-controlled Occupied Territories]. He was released after two hours. An An-Najah student was detained for two hours although it was Wednesday [there has been an arrangement between the An-Najah university in Nablus and the Israeli army whereby the university’s students may leave Nablus on Wednesdays, the end of the university teaching week in the Occupied Territories, and return there on Saturdays, the start of the teaching week, without being in possession of anything more than a valid An-Najah student card]. Fifteen minutes after our arrival, many of the detainees were released. This was thanks to T., the checkpoint commander who arrived at 14:00; he’s a man who knows six languages, took full responsibility and demanded very little of his subordinates. Indirectly he had a generally positive effect on their conduct. Although he tried to speed release procedures for the detainees, since he was usually also busy solving other problems, their release was still held up. Once, his communications battery ran out , another time the communication with the GSS was faulty and no help arrived… we went to seek the aid of the Huwwara North commander to speed up technical solutions.The taxi driver was released after an hour. One man was detained over two hours because the soldiers lost his ID card. After a while, it was located. But the man had meanwhile spent two-and-a-half-hours in the detainees’ shed.15:00 — There was a long line of cars waiting today. A soldier took a driver’s ID card and asked him jokingly: “Who do you resemble?” The driver was embarrassed, and didn’t understand. The soldier called his mate over, to ask his opinion and the two of them stood there laughing at the driver’s expense.Some settlers arrived and one of them, a woman, offered the soldiers some refreshments and lectured us.. But she was neither hostile nor violent. After offering her refreshments, she left.Two young boys from the Har Bracha settlement arrived on bicycles. They made it seem as if they were ignoring us, but when we turned our backs they resorted to little provocations such as throwing a pebble at Debra, rubbing against us, quietly swearing at us, as though wary of irritating the soldiers. The soldiers spent some time fixing the youngsters’ bikes when they should have been dealing with the waiting line.A veteran settler arrived in a car, shouting at us and trying to catch our attention. He kept coming around and shouting something, repeatedly. Ignoring all of them really helps.Settlers in army uniform arrived, photographing us as some sort of counter-measure. Some petty officer was looking for a relative among the soldiers and bothered T., the commander, for a long time.17:40—There were now 14 detainees waiting in the shed. Among them was an elderly man with some sort of Canadian ID. It took a long time, but we finally managed to arrange his passage with the District Coordinating Office (DCO)[the army section that handles civilian matters; it generally has representatives at the checkpoints ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians] Two buses arrived full of happy girls , back from a trip to Ramallah – what a refreshing change to be witnesses to a little island of freedom for a moment.18:00 — There were now 18 detainees. The checkpoint closed and they were transferred to Huwwara North. On our way back to Tel Aviv we stopped at the Za’tara (Tapuah) Junction: there was a long line of cars at the checkpoint which was manned by reservists. They complained of the army’s splitting their tour of duty into 2-week chunks, thus “exploiting” them and denying them their days off… We helped to move forward a cab that was carrying an unconscious child who was then transferred to the Red Crescent. Moshe Zar [a settler leader] drove by in his car, shouting at us, cursing, and, inter alia, calling us lesbians. One of the soldiers shouted back that he actually preferred these “lesbians”… In general the soldiers were very nice to us and while we were there, the line of cars moved rather well. But the feeling was that as soon as we left, they’d be back to slow checking and the line would grow long again. It seems that we were right – when we called one of the detainees to find out whether he’d been released, we learned that an hour after we were there, he ‘d waited a very long time at Za’tara. He’d been on his way to Hebron with his nephew who had been detained for three hours, and thus they’d only started making their way home when it was already dark.