Hebron Area, inner checkpoints Monday morning, 10 May 2004 Watchers: Paula, Ye’ela, Yael, a guest At 6:30, we left Shoket junction. Immediately after Meytar, the blue [Israeli] police set up a checkpoint to check the southbound traffic. One kilometer further to the north there was a jeep of the Border Police parked alongside the road — waiting for someone? Hwy #60, Dura–El Fawar junction. We saw many orange colored taxis crossing the road between the two villages, as well as trucks moving from one side to the other. The same trucks were seen later on traveling on Hwy #60 towards Jerusalem. Since there was no apparent problem, we moved on to the Sheep’s junction. 6:50, Hebron’s industrial area and Yata junction. There was no army presence there, and the Palestinians were crossing freely on both sides of the road, as well as some donkey- or horse-drawn carts. We stood on the side of the road to greet them.A few minutes later a Humvee drove up. The officer in charge approached us and kindly asked us to leave the place. According to him, these were instructions he received from higher authorities. He ignored our argument that we had obtained the consent of the brigade commander, and again said that we were not allowed to stand there. We tried to call Dan Twizer (deputy brigade commander), but there was no answer on his cell phone. We left, and kept going north. We saw that as soon as we started driving, people were again allowed to cross the road. We went to the eastern side of Yata, Zif Junction. The checkpoint was closed, and there was no IDF presence. Pedestrians crossed freely. We went back to Hebron-Yata Junction. The time is 7:30 and traffic is normal. Palestinian trucks and taxis are driving on Hwy #60 northbound, and pedestrians cross the junction on both sides. No soldiers around. Going on southwards, we saw the Humvee parked above the junction, on the Hebron side, observing but invisible to those who go through the junction. Dura—El Fawar Junction. Most of the trucks we had seen on our way north were gone, but four trucks were suspended. Ye’ela approached one of the drivers in Arabic. They said they had arrived to the junction at 4 am on their way northward. They were stopped by the Humvee that checked their IDs, and the ID cards of those who didn’t have a license were taken. The cards were passed to the soldiers in the guard tower, and now the drivers were waiting for them to be returned. They tried to talk to the soldier in the tower, but he kept saying that their licenses had expired and therefore they were not allowed to pass. One of the drivers was from Jenin, and according to him, he was there a month already, waiting for a permission to go back home. The other driver had undergone an operation in a Bethlehem hospital, and was not being allowed to go there for a follow-up. We tried to call the head of brigade, the brigade and the Hebron DCO [IDF Civilian Administration office, in charge of issuing permits], but got no answer. (Does everybody in the army only start working after 8 AM?) Liraz (the IDF operations officer) said that these people didn’t have valid licenses and nothing could be done. Perhaps it was due to our efforts in phoning everybody, or maybe because three hours had passed, the soldier threw the ID cards into the weeds: first of the driver from Jenin, who had to look for it among the thorns under the tower. A few minutes later, another bag was thrown with the three ID cards of the other three drivers. They were allowed to go on the road. We went back to the car and drove to Shoket junction without any further events. Having this information, a question arose: Maybe the soldiers behave differently in the hours they know we are around to observe them? A point for MW to consider: Would you be willing to change some of the morning shifts in the inner checkpoints [within the Territories], in order to see what is going on in these locations throughout the day?