BEIT FURIK, HUWWARA, SARRA, Sunday 30 May 2004 AMObservers: Snait G., Hanna L., Nora P., Yifat D., Dina A. (reporting)colour=red>07:45 — At Za’tara junction there were 11 vehicles waiting to proceed in the Elon Moreh direction, 10 coming from Tel Aviv, three wanting to go towards Ariel, and only two soldiers. We think a complaint should be submitted and more soldiers assigned to this junction where vehicles arrive from three major directions.08:00 — Awarta : Here there were about 20 trucks going to Nablus, eight wanting to travel in the opposite direction.08:10 — At Beit Furik ,we found a quiet line of six vehicles. According to the drivers (two of them carrying dairy products which they feared might spoil) they’d been waiting since 05:30, i.e. before the checkpoint opened at 06:00 ; they said the soldiers had told them they would let people through first and then vehicles. At the entrance to Beit Furik there were about 60 people, with another 20 on the other side. When we arrived, the vehicles began to move, and at a reasonable rate.There were 21 people waiting beside the checkpoint, all of them had been “caught” walking and driving by taxi along the forbidden road to reach their jobs in Israel. Thirteen of them had no work permits, the rest had them. Their details had been sent by phone to the General Security Services (GSS)[also known by the Hebrew acronym as the Shabak or Shin Bet] and they were waiting. We contacted the army’s “humanitarian” hotline four times but couldn’t speed things up; again and again wee were told by the staff what we already know – up to four hours. Finally we involved the office of the army’s so-called civil administration which apparently did help because at about 11:30 they were released (we stayed in telephone contact with them). They told us that the soldiers had given them food and drink.Two trucks, a van and a private car were in the confiscated vehicle area. The soldiers on duty didn’t know why they had been confiscated by the previous shift. The deep ditch (I estimate it at four metres) has now been roughly fenced in with barbed wire, apparently to prevent falls.08:50 — Back at Awarta, we found the checkpoint manned by reservists. The line going into Nablus was not moving, the line away from the town was rapid.09:00 — At Huwwara South about 100 people stood waiting in the oppressive heat, without water or shade. The soldiers were irritable. Yesterday, a company commander had been gravely injured at Balata, and brought through this checkpoint where he died. Ambulances went through quickly, and the hand-carts plied their trade between the two sides of the checkpoint. About 30 detainees stood in the blazing sun, and only at 09:30 did the officer find time to send all the names to the GSS. It was impossible to talk to him before because of the confusion at the checkpoint and the soldiers’ attempts to impose order. The soldiers had some shelter from the sun but also suffered from the heat under their heavy equipment. With their consent, we matched up three people who had medical referrals but lacked permits with ambulances which agreed to take them into Nablus. A white van with [Jewish Israeli]settlers halted beside us. Some young people got out, came up very close to us and started to pick a fight. They were violent, cursed us and tried to “win over” the soldiers. We kept quiet, which infuriated them even more, but the soldiers asked them to move and they left. We noted the licence number of the van [settlers have recently physically attacked Machsomwatch women on several occasions].09:30 — When we saw the officer finally sending off the names of the detainees, we contacted the “humanitarian” hotline because the detainees said they’d been waiting since 08:00. We kept calling them and the District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that attends to civilian matters and usually has a representative at the checkpoints ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians] again and again but nothing happened. The detainees tried to crowd into the narrow strip of shade near the concrete barriers. According to the officer, there was shade on the northern side of the checkpoint but “they” [the Palestinians] had dismantled it because “when there’s no shade it photographs better.”An elderly father and his sick son who had a medical referral weren’t allowed to go through the checkpoint to Nablus. We badgered the “humanitarian” hotline until telephone permission was finally given by the DCO to the checkpoint and the two went through.09:00 — At Huwwara North (the road out of Nablus) there were seven detainees, one with a two-year-old child. The women’s line was dealt with rapidly, but the pace at which that for the young and older men proceeded was less than acceptable. The soldiers’ attitude to ambulances was reasonable. The man with the child was passed through quickly at our request and the other detainees went through afterwards. When we left there were two new detainees. There were two taxis and one van that had been confiscated. According to the report, their owners were due to come today at 18:00 to get them back. There was no water, and no shade. According to the soldiers, the water tank was broken. The soldiers refused rapid passage to a student from An-Najah University who wanted to travel to Hebron, nor did they allow through students who live in Nablus and study at the Ramallah College.10:30 — At Sarra, one of the soldiers informed us when we arrive that this was a closed military area. We told him he was mistaken [ there are clearly defined instructions as to what constitutes a “closed military area”, but soldiers quite frequently use this rubric in an attempt to get rid of the Machsomwatch presence]. At the checkpoint area, a water tanker was filling the pipe-line leading to the soldiers’ lookout point. The driver was from Sarra, and said he was paid to do it. There was no traffic. One man who drove up was obliged to climb steps carved into the hillside to the soldiers’ lookout to present his documents. At 11:30, when we left, the Beit Furik detainees had been released, but not those at Huwwara. When we passed the southern side on our way home, we saw that the long line of detainees was now sitting on the fence by the concrete barriers under a shelter. At 11:45 we asked the “humanitarian” unit to register a formal complaint that an unacceptable number of detainees had been waiting at the checkpoint for an unacceptable period of time under unacceptable conditions without water and shade. Nothing happened till 13:00 when a telephone conversation with the “representative” of the detainees revealed that only two or three had been released, while the rest were still standing in the blazing sun. Nor were they permitted to give up and leave [detainees’ ID cards are held by the soldiers while the GSS checks for possible security suspects; the checks not infrequently take several hours, during which the ID cards are not released; and without an ID card, a Palestinian is a non-person].