Beit Furik,Huwwara, Thursday 1/12/05 AMObservers: Deborah L., Tal B.(reporting)07:20 – 12:00Summary: Traffic was stopped at Za’atara at 12:00 and 50 vehicles were on line. There was a warning that a suicide bomber was on his way to Za’atara. There are problems at Beit Furik. We heard about a woman giving birth that was not allowed through in a taxi and had to walk through the checkpoint to a vehicle on the Nablus side. We also heard about a man taken by the army with no explanation to his family, and about taxis that had been damaged by soldiers with their guns. In Huwwara there was another example of 2 young men caught with combat knives. Dekel claims they want to be put in jail in order to get a free education and to take advantage of other conditions not available to them on the outside. He says the army doesn’t hold them for more then a day.7:20 -On our way to Za’atara, we see a fence being built right up against the rows of olive trees that are at the edge of the road (Route 5) near Cha’rs and later near Marda. Some olive trees have had to be cut down to put up the fence. Deborah said it seems that the army wants to limit even further the restricted movement of the Palestinians along Route 5. At the entrance to Marda soldiers are standing with their guns aimed and ready. There is a troop carrier as well. We continue to see parts of the fence being built on both sides of the road. 7:35 Za’atara – It is hard to recognize this junction because of how built up it has become. There are l5 vehicles coming from the direction of Nablus. The soldiers have a list of about 100 ID numbers. The soldier shows Deborah how he has just been given an additional number that he has written in by hand of someone who is leaving Nablus with explosives. It is not clear what profile they are looking for. Some of the vehicles got waved on, and some are stopped and IDs are compared to the numbers on the list. There were no detainees while we are here.7:50 -We leave Za’atara and now there are 18 vehicles on line.7:55 -Yitzar – A rolling checkpoint. Vehicles are allowed to pass through quickly. We don’t see any IDs being checked. [ Two ambulances were stopped and the soldiers took a cursory look inside and passed them on. 8:00 Beit Furik – 2 vehicles on line going to Nablus and they are checked quickly.Trucks coming from Nablus under go the “sniff test” by the dog from the Oketz unit. During the check, the driver of the check is not allowed to be in the truck. There is a steady but scanty flow of pedestrians–not enough for a line to build up so they pass through quickly. In the furthest lane from the ID checking booths, there is a truck that is stuck. We are told the hand brakes failed and the truck rolled and hit the side of the checkpoint. The checkpoint officer has called his superiors to report the incident and is waiting for someone to come. The driver is waiting. There are 2 versions of what has happened: the driver’s version and the soldiers’. The driver says that the soldier (the woman who trains the dog) and the dog were together in the cabin of the truck and were checking it when the truck started to roll. The driver seeing what was happening, ran from where he was outside the truck, jumped into the truck and engaged the brake. The truck hit the side of the guard booth and jammed the large side mirror against the window on the passenger side. The woman soldier who is in the Oketz unit says only the dog was in side the cabin. She was on the steps of the cabin and that it was the dog that released the brake. The driver says a dog is not strong enough to release the brake. It takes a lot of power. Mickey F. says we should have had a camera and taken a picture and we should have gotten the name of the woman soldier in case there are any questions later on. Take note for the next time….8:30 -Deborah calls D. about the truck. He says he’ll check it out. About a half hour later she calls the Humanitarian Hotline(Moked ,) and after that G. the army spokesman, and then D. again because nothing is being done and the driver is losing a day’s work.The checkpoint officer A. says the checkpoint opens at 5:00. We went to ask the taxi drivers. They say sometimes it is 5:00, 5:30 or even 6:00. A taxi driver shows us damage to his taxi that soldiers have perpetrated with their guns. He told us about the problems that there are in the afternoon when they close the checkpoint at 17:30. Only if the residents call the DCO, or MachsomWatch, and make a big fuss does someone from the DCO arrive and let them pass. A. says that they let those exiting Nablus pass until 20:00 but the entrance to Nablus is closed at 17:30.A taxi driver tells me that yesterday he came to the checkpoint at 23:00 with a woman about to give birth. The soldiers did not open the gate. They waited an hour and a half. Only then, did an army jeep arrive and they still were not allowed to pass. They contacted someone from the Nablus side who came to the checkpoint. The woman had to walk through the checkpoint by foot to meet the vehicle and be taken to the hospital. I asked A. what he had to say about this event. He was there and he says the woman got to the checkpoint after it was closed. He claims they waited “only” 20 minutes. He can’t let them pass until the jeep that makes rounds arrives, and it took 20 minutes for them to get there.A bit later a Beit Furik resident told me that a friend of his drove to the checkpoint in a white VW a week ago and was taken by the army. They haven’t heard anything from him, or about him since. (We took the details.) He asked us to wait until the father of the man who was taken away could get to the checkpoint to give us more information. The father says that the day after his son was taken, they let him take the car home but nothing was mentioned about his son. I called D. and then Hannah B. She said the father should call the Red Cross because the army must give the Red Cross the information. We gave the father the numbers of the Red Cross and the Hotline for Protection of the Individual.10:00 -We left Beit Furik and no one had come to see about the truck. The driver was still waiting. We took his phone number and gave him ours.We arrived at Anwarta and met a Palestinian who is responsible for filling out a form for the UN recording the number of trucks that arrive and are carrying merchandise. He has this job for a week at 100 shequels a day. A truck driver said he waited a quarter of an hour on line from Nablus. Later a different driver told us he had waited on line for 5 minutes. It depended on how many trucks were on line. The checkpoint officer, G., was cordial and wanted to explain the procedures at Anwarta. He was trying to learn Arabic and practiced it with the drivers. He says drivers need permits and each case is different. The DCO can give one for over a year or for only a day. Deborah saw one dated that was good for a month. There were 5 soldiers at the checkpoint (one was a woman soldier from the Oketz Unit with a dog)—2 soldiers checked the trucks coming from the south and 3 were checking those leaving Nablus. There were 2 lines of vehicles coming from Nablus– one with trucks carrying merchandise and one without. When we left, there were 12 trucks leaving Nablus altogether.10:30 Huwwara -There is no DCO representative. There are 3 detainees. One is sitting in the detainment area. They found a CD of Shiiads on him and are checking him out. He is released after a short time. The other two are in the process of being handcuffed. The checkpoint officer, M., shows us knives that were found on the detainees. The detainees will be taken for an investigation.We ask why only one booth is open for checking IDs. Even though there are 50 people waiting, he says there isn’t a need for 2 people to check IDs right now. He is cordial to us and when we ask for the ID numbers of the detainees, he is willing to give them to us. There are 8 vehicles leaving Nablus and the waiting time for the vehicles is 20 minutes10:40 – 11:00. There are two soldiers checking cars entering Nablus and three checking those that are leaving Nablus. At first the waiting for a pedestrian is 12 minutes10:43 – 10:55 but as more people arrive to the checkpoint, the time increases to a half-hour11:08 – 11:34.11:15 U. from the Boarder Police #22249 – license plate arrives to take the detainees. Officer M. takes one of the combat knives that were confiscated and tries to cut the plastic handcuffs. He has to work at it for a long time before it cuts through. The police talks to the officer and to the detainees and puts them in the jeep. Then they are taken out of the jeep and returned to the detainment area. U. stops some residents going into Nablus to check their IDs. The police leave but we are told that they have gone to check some other problem and they will be back. We ask Officer M. to make sure the detainees have water.11:35 -Deborah calls D. to ask about the detainees. D. says young men coming to the checkpoint with knives has become a regular occurrence. They want to be put in jail so they can get an education and better conditions then what they have outside jail. However, the army usually questions them and sends them home after a day. And what about the police who are suppose to come to check about the truck at Beit Furik? D. says they are on the way. When Deborah asks why there is no DCO representative here, he says that it is no longer a policy to have a DCO representative at every checkpoint. They assign them according to the needs of the moment.11:40 -We leave Huwware. There are about 100 pedestrians. There are now 2 soldiers checking IDs.12:00 Za’atara -50 vehicles on line. A soldier tells us that a suicide bomber was able to skip through the Huwwara checkpoint and is now on his way to Za’atara. We called Hagar L. who is on the next shift and she’ll be coming soon.