Huwwara amd Beit Furiq, Sunday 12.3.06 PMObservers: Noa P., Judit B., Tal H., Galit G., Naomi L.(Galit, Naomi and Tal reporting)CP commander – R.. At the beginning of our vigil, an officer also present (Company Commander or deputy commander).15:15 – never before have we witnessed to such a scene at a checkpoint: as we arrived, a young detainee was being taken out of the pen, 17-year old S., familiar to us from previous vigils. his hands restrained in front of his body. His whole family crowded around him, 17 persons including both his parents, brothers and sisters, and aunt. All of them from the Balata refugee camp. From talking to the soldiers we learned that at 9 a.m. the boy arrived to the CP on his own initiative and turned himself in to the army. After speaking with the GSS (general security services) on the phone, an order was received to arrest him, and he has been waiting since. Family members told us a search was conducted at their home at 5 a.m. but nothing was found. They came to the CP to take leave of the youngster who is going to jail.15:28 – a jeep arrived to pick up S., and the entire entourage broke out in tears. It was a heart-rending scene. They quietly stood around him and kissed him each in their turn, another hug and another whisper in his ear, crying the whole time. Palestinians standing aside and waiting for their own family members stuck in the checking lines could hardly hold back their tears as well. The accompanying officer stood aside and waited for them to finish taking leave without any interference or prodding on his part. Several of the family members then proceeded towards the jeep in which the boy sat, and hugged and kissed him again, crying. He was constantly smiling and comforting them.We stood there, helpless, and all we could do was distribute cards of the Center for the Defense of the Individual, as well as our own phone number. The silence that fell around them as they took tearful leave of their young son whom they’d see again who knows when and in what circumstances, and whatever preceded the boy’s turning himself in – all of this hung in mid-air like a great cry.Besides, business as usual at the CP. Piles of construction stuff and rubble in front of the CP compound, right at the pedestrians’ narrow footpath (been there for 3 weeks now, to be exact). People headed into Nablus now have to tread a new ground stone path freshly pressed along the side, behind the detainees’ pen. Equidistant holes in the ground there foretell the separation fence that is to be erected between those entering and those exiting Nablus. The CP commander asks us about the latest “improvements” at the CP. Aren’t the Palestinians better off now, this way? 3 more detainees, 2 young men and a Palestinian Israeli citizen who went into Nablus and now on his way out has been punitively kept in the pen for 2 hours already.The shed is completely filled with pedestrians, while one ID checking post is wo-manned singly, and all the other soldiers regulate checking pace accordingly.When the line for ID check fills up, they stop letting people through the turnstiles. The side “humanitarian” line is closed and everyone must crowd through the turnstiles. Throughout our vigil this line was intermittently closed and opened. According to the regulations, body and personal effects searches are conducted at only two posts, one on each side of the lines, more or less in the middle, regardless of the number of people waiting for them at any moment. Only two checking posts!When the securing soldier leaves the post, the checking soldier stops working.15:30 – 2 taxi drivers are sent to the detainees’ pen, their IDs and car keys taken from them. The army’s General Attorney forbids punishment but this makes no impression on our CP commander. The army hotline tells us they will start looking into our plaint only after 2 hours go by. Nor is anyone impressed with the fact that confiscation of car keys is illegal. Soldiers are allowed to detain people in order to check their IDs with the GSS, and this is the way to justify any evil.15:40 – The Israeli citizen is released. In the pen – 5 men. A passer by recognizes his friend among them, and stops to chat, bringing on a soldier’s snarl : “What’s your problem? Get moving!!”15:50 – From the end of the young men’s line we are called to help, but are prevented from nearing them. A man asks to get through without waiting inline as he is rushing off to his father’s funeral. The soldiers send him to the end of the line to stand properly like everyone else. He insists on speaking with the officer.The special side line for women and the elderly is now opened. They hurry through but have to wait until their husbands get through as well. There is one plastic chair at the CP, and we pass it over to a pregnant woman, and then to those holding babies.16:00 – 3 more taxi drivers join the ones already detained. One of them complains he has no work and 2 children he can hardly feed. The soldier insists they all sit on the bench and not on the pen’s concrete ledge. “They might run off”, he explains. One of the drivers reminds him: “What do you care where I sit? You have my ID and keys anyway…”Bus checking procedure: After waiting for two hours (!), all the passengers are taken off the bus and the check lasts another half an hour.Little children hang on to their parents in the turnstiles and cry. The men’s body check consists of prodding and thrusting hands. Weapons constantly pointed at and held centimeters away from the Palestinians.16:35 – the taxi drivers get their IDs and keys back, not without a lecture of course, from the officers who release them.25 men between the turnstiles and the ID checking post, and only one soldier checking IDs. “A line means one at a time, not two!!” he scolds them. The securing soldiers points his gun at the men in line and his finger incessantly plays – ticking and tocking – with different parts of the rifle, and caressing the magazine. A Palestinian, his head covered with the national head kerchief is required to untie it, show his head and wrap it back up.17:00 – detained now is a Palestinian from Nablus, active partner in various peace camp activities, personally familiar with Israeli activists we know well.17:15 – A detainee holding a Venezuelan passport, living in Jama’in and studying in Nablus. Detained because there is no entry visa in his passport. He says he gets through without any difficulty every day.The special side line for women is crowded and closed, women children and elderly people are all crushed together. We asked the commander to open the line, a mother with her two children came out towards him. Another soldier leapt at her, pointing his rifle, pushing her back into the line. The commander too came to ‘make order’ – pushing them back in and locking the gate. For 10 minutes 4-5 soldiers stand there trying to make order in line instead of having the people pass through. Even after they finally open the gate, they keep closing it every few minutes.17:45 – at the vehicle line, a father must get his little daughter back home after having rushed her to the hospital emergency room in Nablus, and his car has no entry permit. The commander showed good judgment and let them pass, at our request.A woman complains that women are made to stand in line in between the men and go through the usual via dolorosa that is so time consuming. At the ID checking post, still only one girl-soldier.The body search post is empty of soldiers, so a few elderly men advance towards the ID check. Immediately the soldiers push everyone back, roaring at them – how dare they come forward without having been body checked. One of the men protests in fluent English: “I have no atom bomb on me. Just check me and let me go, I want to get to my kids in the village. I have only the right to speak and my dignity and you won’t take that away from me…” The soldiers insist that everyone move back before anyone is let through. The soldier explains to the protesting man that he cannot check him without the presence of another – securing – soldier, and that one had gone off…all of this in fluent Hebrew… Finally, when the securing soldier arrives, he instructs his mate to “check him good!” These are people who could easily be their grandparents, age-wise.At the vehicle checking lane, many cars are turned back. Only upon our intervening, was a woman doctor from Ramallah who entered Nablus ni the afternoon allowed to exit and go on home. A cab driver who entered in the morning to get his cab fixed at a certain designated garage in Nablus, is let through following our intervention after waiting in line for an hour and a half, and another 20 minutes checking.An employee of the World Bank wishes to go to Ramallah in a car with diplomatic license plates. She is equipped with all the necessary documentation – but she too had to stand in line for an hour, and wait for a check another 50 minutes. A pharmacist residing in Nablus is refused entry to go home because his permit has expired a few days ago and the company that employs him says the new permit will only arrive tomorrow. He will try passing through Beit Iba CP.The CP commander is nowhere to be seen and when he returns from his skirmish behind enemy lines – the taxi park… – 20 minutes later, he is not available for help.18:50 – the commander is finally able to see the diplomatic license plated car, asks for the documents, is told angrily that they have been in the hands of the soldiers for over an hour. “What, don’t you know what each of them is doing?” He extricates them from the pocket of one of his subordinates and releases her, apologizing for the delay.A truck driver – Palestinian Israeli citizen – loaded with construction lumber, asks the commander to let him through. He needs to unload his truck 500 meters from the CP!The commander sends him to the trucks terminal at Awarta that is already closed at this hour. The driver begs him to relent, else he’ll have to sleep in the truck or go back to the north (and that’s probably what he did eventually). The commander patiently explains to him that these are the instructions, the commander is accountable for his safety, and if anything happens to him, the commander would be the one to go to jail. All the driver’s pleas don’t help here, even when he explains he has a mother and father living in Nablus, and is perfectly safe with them, not needing the army’s protection.At Za’atara Junction there were about 30 cars upon our arrival, in 3 lanes. On our way back there were 10 vehicles. At Yitzhar-Huwara Junction there was no roadblock this time, and Beita village too has been relieved of the siege that it suffered last week.Beit Furiq (Noa and Naomi)17:00 – very few vehicles and pedestrians. Checking is swift and the soldiers friendly both to the Palestinians and to us. The signs (placed there a few days ago) announcing the closing times have been removed. The soldiers say the hours have not changed: 5:30 p.m. for entry to Nablus, 8 p.m. for exit towards Beit Furiq.A dog who lives at the CP joyously leaps at the pedestrians, a woman is startled and refuses to pass until the dog be removed. The soldier tells us: “This is no place for a dog. Take him with you to Israel!”17:30 – a truck owner wishes to transfer goods (clothes) across the CP and the soldiers send him to the Awarta terminal that closes at 5 p.m… When he insists, they call their superiors and refused. Only tomorrow, Awarta.Assured that “security” is alive and well at Nablus checkpoints, we head for home. At the entry checkpoint to Israel (!) the soldiers say hi, we say bye, our accent is convincing, no need to even open a trunk or take a second look…