DEIR BALLUT, TAPUAH JUNCTION, HUWWARA, Thursday 20 May 2004 AMNaomi B., Navah A., Ofra C., Miki P., Judith A”D (reporting) colour=red> We went to Deir Ballut at the request of the mayor and other residents who had told us about the unacceptable behaviour at the checkpoint. At 07:45, when we arrived, the checkpoint was empty. It consists of a metal gate, manned by two soldiers, which is locked at 19:00 each day until the following morning. It is located at the southern end of a bottle-shaped area and provides the only way in (or out) for three villages in the area: Az-Zawiya , Rafat and Deir Ballut.Residents told us that many people go through the checkpoint early in the morning (today there were no problems), returning through it again in the afternoon. The Rantis checkpoint to the south is totally closed. A trip to Ramallah, that should take half-an-hour, takes instead two to three hours at best. No-one other than residents of the area is allowed in.We got to Tapuah Junction at 09:00, when there were about 10-15 cars coming from the direction of Nablus . Drivers said the wait there was between half-an-hour and two hours. At Huwwara South , 15 minutes later, there were some 50 people waiting in two lines, one for men and one for women. Passage through the checkpoint was handled relatively reasonably, but the local commander showed no flexibility regarding humanitarian cases. Thus: he refused to let through a man taking his sick child to hospital — the man had no written referral. We suggested that the man’s documents be checked, only to be answered with the usual time-worn mantras: “They’re all liars.” We didn’t give up and also called the District Coordinating Office (DCO), but their phone was busy [the DCO is the section of the army that deals with civilian matters]. At 10:20, they were let through.A young man whose arm was so badly injured that it looked as if it had gone through a meat grinder was also refused permission to cross through [for treatment]. The soldiers, one of them a medic, told us that they would have let him through, but the commander had made up his mind and they couldn’t argue with him. He is convinced that the people at the checkpoint are dangerous terrorists. We nagged about the young man’s case until finally, after an hour, he was allowed through.A voice on the radio told us that the Gaza Strip’s residents were themselves responsible for what was happening to them . The whole thing [the attack on Rafah by the Israeli army] is beginning to sound as though it’s all a humanitarian enterprise, a demonstration of ethics and justice, rather than the outright war that it surely is. Because of “lack of manpower”, not a single vehicle was allowed through the checkpoint for the entire time that we were there. Five Border Police present there were seemingly for decoration only. Apparently they are forbidden to take any active role here. After an hour-and-a-half the soldiers began checking cars.A young woman holding Jordanian citizenship had come to visit her parents in Nablus. She was sent back to wherever she came from. A Swiss woman drove up with two Palestinian women; all three are activists in a well-known international women’s organization and were on their way to a conference in Nablus. The Swiss woman was turned back. The Israeli army must protect, or be protected from, foreigners.There were seven detainees, among them a 14-year-old boy who came to the checkpoint armed with a copy of his father’s ID card [too young to have their own ID cards, boys like this have a difficult time if they are on their own at the checkpoints where, if they can prove that they are under 15, they should be allowed through freely; if they bring their birth certificates, they are usually assured of passage, but few parents will trust them with such a document; they are registered on their parents’ ID cards, but it is unlikely that a checkpoint soldier would accept a photocopy of such an ID card]. The commander decided that the lad was lying [about his age]; we nagged as much as we could , and after an hour-and-a-half as a detainee he was allowed through.At Huwwara North, a young man came to ask our help: four days ago soldiers had confiscated his car, because the friend who was with him had annoyed one of them. S., from the DCO, promised that by the end of the day he would get the car back. There were three detainees; the few pedestrians who came to the checkpoint went through reasonably quickly.An older man had a referral to Ichilow Hospital in Tel Aviv. The DCO had refused to give him a permit. He said he had been going to Ichilow for years for medical treatment and had never before had any problems. We passed on his details to the Physicians for Human Rights organization which promised to deal with it.