. ZA’ATARA, SARRA, HAWWARA, BEIT FOURIK , SUNDAY 4 APRIL 2004 Observers: Snait G., Hanna L., Rona K., Dina A. (reporting) colour=red>In general: There are no rolling checkpoints. Throughout the morning there is no reply from the DCO offices in Nablus. A cold day.Za’atara , 07:30 The officer in charge notifies us that he will “kick us three kilometres away”. We cannot get through to the DCO offices and the IDF “Humanitarian center” [hotline for cases requiring immediate attention] cannot help: when 10 teachers are sent back, the Center informs us that today teachers are not being allowed through Za’atara to teach in the surrounding villages.Sarra, 07:50The metal arm in the block at the entry to the village is lifted. Two soldiers on top of the hill overlooking the road leading down from the village are playing with their guns. Not a soul in sight. The soldiers confirm that all the “regular” teachers (i.e. those whom they know) have been allowed through.Hawwara South, 08:30 Despite the closure and encirclement, the checkpoint is crowded. A metal gate has been added at the beginning of the paved track, limiting exit to one person only, and creating congestion behind it. The checkpoint is staffed by four soldiers only, but they operate quickly and fairly. Women are checked quickly. There is only one detainee.Hawwara North, 08:30The officer in charge is outspokenly hostile towards us, and tries to harass us (move here, move there). This side of the check-point, for those leaving Nablus, is staffed heavily. There are first five and then eight detainees, two of whom are Israeli Arabs. Women are checked with the same attention as men – they are “called” in one by one, asked to open and display all their baggage, their identity cards are examined thoroughly and they are questioned. Some young women are taken for body inspection in a tent.The police arrive to check a cab impounded four days ago, on the charge that the driver crossed the stop line at the checkpoint. The cab is suspected of carrying drugs. The driver claims that one of the windows has been smashed. He was given a card of the humanitarian centre where he can receive advice on filing a suit to cover the costs of the broken glass (very expensive). The police question him, the Israeli Arabs and us as well. They take up positions in the checkpoint, order us out of the area where the car is being inspected , and ask for our identity cards. We ask for theirs in return, and the details of the investigating officer (Shmuel Ben-Hamo). Beit Fourik, 09:40 There is a reasonable line of people and cars. Soldiers are exceptionally quick and efficient. Detainees who are asked to wait are handled quickly and the soldiers are attentive to pressure points. A rather older officer, who may have been a DCO officer, checking the women’s line was especially cordial towards the younger women, not leaving them much choice but to talk to him.Hawwara South, 10:20 The line has grown longer and there are 16 detainees in the “pit”, the barbed-wire fenced-off area, lower than the paved track, where detainees are asked to wait. They have been there between 45 to 75 minutes, including the time they spent first in the general queue. One young man has been handcuffed, his hands bound behind his back, after an alleged fist attack on a soldier. Not having a permit, he still begged to be allowed into Nablus, to visit his dying father. He was permitted to go through after a special phone call. A grandmother with a grandson suffering from severe eye infection, accompanied by a young cousin, needed to get to the hospital in Nablus. Despite all our efforts , the young cousin was refused. The grandmother could not afford the taxi fare to Nablus, and finally we got her together with an ambulance-taxi whose driver volunteered to drive her in. Hawwara North, 10:30There are now 24 detainees including the two Israeli Arabs, being “punished” with detention, presented to them as the better option to the “official” one: NIS5,000 penalty for entering a military zone (the city of Nablus). I give one of them my telephone number, and exactly three hours later he calls me to report that they have been released.One of the two women soldiers at the women’s line curses the women and their children. A verbal fight develops between me and the soldier which involves all the other soldiers of the checkpoint as audience. Apologies for losing my temper. I am new and not so resilient yet. Za’atara, 11:00A line of 31 cars waits at the junction.