Hawwara, Sunday 9.10.05 PMObservers: Galit G. Judith B. Tal H. Naomi L. (reporting)Definitely an unusual vigil, could easily be staged as a 3 act drama. The gun in Act I certainly went off in the last act, and the Palestinians – after an endless wait – nearly gave a standing ovation when finally allowed to go home.Why didn’t the army think of this earlier: the checking posts are now protected by sheets of plexi-glass with a tiny hole through which the IDs are inserted for the check. All decisive checking is done between the turnstiles.16:30 – All men must stand single-file along the concrete wall of the shed some paces away from the turnstile. A soldier signals the next to approach and pass the turnstile and the others must retreat. As soon as he looks away, this artificial order breaks up and people crowd up to the turnstiles. The inevitable “Get back!!!” is then shouted again and again by the soldiers who push the men back into the turnstiles, ad infinitum. Some of the pedestrians are easily as old as the soldiers’ parents. Over 100 men in the waiting line. A constant, exhausting war of nerves between the order-givers demanding impeccable single-file queues, and people rushing home to conclude their day of fasting. 5-6 soldiers are constantly present, guns pointing, to enforce the line.At the detainees pen, 3 students waiting over an hour. 2 men over 40 join them,later subjected to a sermon delivered by sergeant Sali. He thinks they did not behave properly in line, and thus must spend an hour or more in the pen, until they admit that their manners need improving. First they protest, and he yells at them “You’ll sit here until nightfall if I say so.” When one of them asks “Why do you keep pointing your gun at me? I’m unarmed!”, the response is: “because you react with force! Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. You must learn your lesson.”We told the CP commander that punitive delay is not legal – according to the Army Attorney General, and he replied that his battalion commander allows him an hour’s detention so that “they will learn to behave nicely at the checkpoint”. We called said-commander E. (who welcomed the call and wished us well for the holidays). We repeated the illegality of this punitive delay. He said we see things one-sidedly and invited us to his office to explain to us over a cup of coffee what we don’t realize ourselves. During this conversation, all the detainees were released…A youngster who goes through this every day pointed to the soldiers and asked us rhetorically, “Tell me, is this peace??”17:12 – about 50 men standing at the glassed ID check posts, only 2 posts (wo)manned. Not for lack of soldiers – plenty of these are busy pointing their guns at the pedestrians.The whole compound drowns in filth, plastic bags, food remnants, cans and bottles.17:25 – the vehicles in line hardly moving at all. waiting at least 2 hours to be checked.Women proceed in a side-line outside the turnstiles, without delay. Some of them then wait endlessly for their escorts.We request an officer (captain) present to reinforce the ID checking posts. He is a mental health officer and this is not in his line of duty. Which does not keep him from hand-signaling Palestinians who already passed through, to get back lest one of them was not checked. The pressure facing the womanned posts is great, their behavior towards the Palestinians crass and contemptuous throughout.17:50 – a woman with 3 children, two in prams, sent to the women’s inspection booth.(The actual sign in situ spells ispection…) The girl soldier stays outside (!) and leaves the door partly open in order to check her. She tells the woman to remove her scarf and open her dress. The men passing by are inevitable eye-witnesses to what there is (or isn’t) found there.3 men leading their brother who can hardly walk, around the side. The soldiers scream “No!” and send them back. They go through the whole tedious process, and then at the ID checking posts they are not even given a glance. One of them, deeply offended and angry, asks us “So this is what it’s all about?” and they get their sick brother into the waiting taxi.And now for the main item (heard last night on the 8 o’clock news…)17:35 -The CP is nearly empty. 2 young boys holding 2 plastic bags, one green the other yellow, pass the first turnstile. Suddenly a shriek is heard “Explosive procedure!” and all the soldiers run over to the spot, guns pointing, ready to shoot. The boys raise their hands, throw the bags on the floor. The soldiers tell them to strip and stay in their underwear. Their hands stay up, shaking with fear and cold, the whole CP freezes.The soldiers tell one of them to walk over in his underpants to the field, cross about 300 yards and leave the bags there. Coming back, they are told to get dressed, one of them ordered to the pen, the other hanging around near the checking posts.18:24 – soldiers and officers conduct discussion and observations about the nylon bag thrown in the field. coming and going, repeatedly. But the field is filled with numerous colored plastic bags, it’s already dark and hard to find anything…At the CP talk is of a box of ammunition and an improvised home-made gun.One of us comments that the bag must contain at least a nuclear device, the soldier standing next to us reddens. Pointing out that one of the soldiers on the scene was not wearing a helmet, and expressing our concern for his “safety”, they yelled all the more…18:33 – a jeep with a police explosives-expert arrives. Everyone, including ourselves, is chased out of the area all the way to the south CP. We join a large group of late-comers headed home to Nablus, who are also forbidden passage, including women and a baby in a carriage, about 80 people in all. All the while, settlers rush by in their vehicles up the hill to Bracha, obviously in no danger of the coming explosion. The Palestinains are hungry and thirsty after a day’s work while fasting (Ramadan is here), they are in a rush to get home, and the soldiers keep pushing them back, with the usual crass rhetoric, guns waving.We call S. the Brigade Deputy-Commander, asking to consider conducting the controlled explosion after people pass. He promises to look into it.19:05 – it’s dark, the police robot has not located the bags among the hundreds strewn throughout the field. Even a non-robot wouldn’t. From afar we see one of the young boys going to the field, raising the bags and putting them in front of the robot.An unimpressive little boom is heard.Soldiers return to the CP, but the BP jeep is still blocking passage. One of the BP men appoints a Palestinian “representative” and in a patronizing-friendly gesture, his arm on the Palestinian’s shoulders, whispers in his ear. He in turn says to the waiting crowd aloud in Arabic that in 5 minutes they will be allowed through the CP, but on the vehicle lane rather than the pedestrians’ path.The Palestinians finally hurry past, walking on the road so as not to be too close to the event, something we had suggested over an hour ago.On our way home we hear on the news and at Hawwara CP 2 boys were caught with improvised guns (what is that?) and bullets.So we wondered: How come the boys first arrived at the checkpoint as it was nearly empty??-Why were they not handcuffed nor blindfolded at any point?-How come one of them was allowed to roam freely around the CP compound?-How come they did not want to contact their parents? We conversed with the one sitting in the detainees pen, in Arabic, and they had no interest in calling home. Nor did they seem troubled in any way. (To my question what is this stupidity to come to the checkpoint with a bag full of bullets, the boy smiled and shrugged. T.H.)-Whose interest is it, really, to send them to the checkpoint and be caught there with a ragged plastic bag containing some bullets and parts of an “improvised homemade gun”? -How come news of their capture already hit the radio before the controlled explosion, and what was really in that bag that no one had opened until that time and seen its contents?-Had we spoilt someone’s party? Everything had started when, one pace away from us, one of the MP men yelled “Explosives procedure” even before the bag was opened. Telepathy? An alert received from authorized sources concerning the contents of this particular bag?-Perhaps, had our ears not been there, would explosive body belts already be traveling into the heart of the country?