ZA’TARA, SARRA, BEIT FURIK, HUWWARA, Sunday 16 May 2004 AM Observers: Hannah L., Dina A., Snait ( reporting) color =red>SummaryThere were really serious warnings [of planned terrorist attacks] , resulting in strict adherence to the restrictions imposed on the 16 to 35-year-old age group . There were numerous detainees held for many hours especially at Huwwara North. Water was available ( see below). Vehicles were confiscated for periods of four days at Beit Furik and Huwwara. The main issue today was the problem of people who live in Nablus (and have Nablus listed as their place of residence in their ID cards), but who could not prove that they had had a permit to leave it, and were now refused permission to return home.The District Co-ordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that deals with civilian matters] worked irregularly; the people in the army’s “humanitarian” centre tried to help, D.B. was extremely helpful.There are plans afoot to dig a deep trench in the area of the Beit Furiq checkpoint to prevent people from evading it on their way to Nablus from the surrounding villages. It may be worthwhile checking whether this trench will also cut the villages off from each other .Maybe we should repeat our demand that computerized means be introduced at the checkpoints for cross-checking the ID cards of detained people, just like those in use by the Israel Police, rather than depending on the slow pace of the checks now done by the General Security Services [also known by the Hebrew acronym Shabak or the initials Shin Bet].07:20 — Za’taraAs usual, there were two soldiers checking and one covering them. They were quite efficient and checked bus passengers by examining their ID cards rather than making them get off. There were 11 vehicles waiting to be checked. 07:45 — SarraThere were no Palestinians around. The soldiers talked to us, rather than trying to drive us away. The teachers had already gone through to work. Sarra residents are allowed to go on foot down the hill on the recently repaired road towards Jit, Qedumim etc; and may also go on foot or by car or cab on the road leading towards Nablus and its surrounding villages. There were no detainees, and no houses requisitioned by the army.08:00 — At the entrance to the road from Sarra to Shavei Shomron there was an unannounced road block. Some as yet unidentified building is going on at the turning. The patrol operating the road block seemed to be made up of reserve soldiers (officers), who were efficient and quite polite: they allowed those who appeared to be over 35 to pass through quickly; an ambulance, too, went through unhindered. But bus passengers had to get off for ID card checking, which took a while.08:10 — There was a long queue of lorries at the Awarta entrance to Nablus08:20 — Beit FuriqThe line on both sides of the checkpoint moved quite fast. A new, functioning water container was in place.Large scale building activity was going on, with a bulldozer at work. The soldiers said that a new asphalt path was being laid, and shade was being arranged for those waiting in the queue. The line which marks the spot where cab drivers must let off their passengers, and where those who drive up to the checkpoint along the dirt-roads leading to it must also stop, has now been moved a significant few score metres further away from the checkpoint proper. Two mechanical diggers were parked ready to excavate a long trench that will apparently cut across all the dirt roads that now connect the villages with the road to Nablus and thus make it impossible to circumvent the checkpoint. This project needs looking into: will this ditch also cut the villages off one from the other ? Some other noteworthy instances: A Jordanian citizen without an ID card — a complicated case being taken care of by the Centre for the Defence of the Rights of the Individual. Three commercial vans had been confiscated a day earlier ( for driving up too close to the checkpoint and for using the road reserved for [Israeli Jewish] settlers only). The confiscation order had been for four days and the drivers were given written confirmation of what had happened and the date on which their vehicles would be released . One of the drivers had come to try and get his van out early. We didn’t manage to do anything for him, but in the course of trying we realized just how harassed and overworked the soldiers, including the officer, are at this checkpoint, where the shifts of duty are very long. It didn’t exactly help us in our work.On the way back, we saw that the line of lorries now hardly existed. 10:30 — Huwwara South and North Queues on the south side moved forward quickly, there were hardly any detainees.We managed to help a sick man and his family, and another couple. We did not manage to help two Palestinian telephone company technicians. There was a water container but the main faucet was broken. Dina suggested bringing metal cups with chains to attach to all the water containers. The women’s line on the north side moved quickly, as did the line for men over 35. But the other line was very slow. There was a functioning water container. The shade over the detainees area has disappeared. In addition to numerous soldiers, there were also three officers, besides the DCO representative, present at the checkpoint. In the 90 minutes we spent here, there were always many detainees, certainly over 50 of them at any given time, many having waited since early morning. The tension and impatience which built up slowly became manifest and was dealt with sharply by the officer in charge of the detainees. We tried every telephone number we could think of to help speed up the Shin Bet checking. We helped only very little, if at all. The checkpoint officer would not release anyone until they had been cleared , as he wanted “to know who tries to go through this checkpoint”. Around 10:00, some 20 people who had been waiting since early morning were sent back to Nablus as no answers had been received in their cases. Among those waiting were people on their way to the DCO office, with forms already filled in and stamped etc. [Machsomwatch women have spent time observing what happens at the DCOs and have realized that almost invariably far more than one day-long visit to a DCO is needed before any permit is given, and one must arrive early in the morning, as the office opens, because there is always a queue .] We helped in the case of a person with an appointment for an operation in Ramallah, and in another case of a couple with a small child who was to be treated for cancer in Ramallah. D.B. talked with them and helped quickly and efficiently; the hold-up here was with the DCO.Eight cars were confiscated for four days because their drivers had crossed the notional [and invisible] line as they entered the checkpoint from Nablus : it is possible that we helped shorten this punishment time to “only” two days — but this must be checked tomorrow.10:40 – 11:20 — Huwwara South We were presented with a cluster of cases that had one common feature: people who had left Nablus by various means, but could not now return home ( even though Nablus is their place of residence by every criteria including the address that appears in their ID cards ) because they could not produce an exit permit!! Thus there was a man and his wife who had been to a dentist in Ramallah; a man back from a visit to China with permits from the Allenby Bridge international crossing between Israel and Jordan; somebody who had left Nablus for another city in connection with his job, etc. etc. The checkpoint is efficiently run, but the officer in charge was inflexible in any case which called for independent judgement. He promised to release the first case within an hour, which he did. We did not manage to help any of the others. It was particularly frustrating to see the traveller who stood there with two big suitcases, while even Y. from the army’s “humanitarian” centre could offer no better solution than sending him to the Nablus DCO to get a permit !11:30 — Za’tara was almost empty. All we saw were three vehicles waiting to go through.