BEIT IBA , HUWWARA, Tuesday 8 June 2004 AMWatchers: Miriam S., Yael P., Selma M., Rivka A., Naomi R., Etty P. (reporting) colour = red>08:10 — There was an unannounced roadblock at the Jit junction which had produced a very long line of cars in the Shavei Shomron direction. Four soldiers were checking the vehicles. Passengers were not ordered out of the buses.08:20 — At Beit Iba there were about 150 people in line at the entrance to Nablus, all crammed together, with only two soldiers checking them inside the concrete barrier – one by one. At the exit from Nablus, a small line was being checked two by two by two soldiers.There were four detainees who had been there about an hour. Beside the watchtower at the western end of the checkpoint was a new line inside the concrete sleeve. When I asked about this innovation, the commander , A., answered politely and said he’d call his officer to talk to me. Meanwhile, a reservist, A. (one of the “seamline” volunteers who do duty at checkpoints along the line where Israel touches the Palestinian Authority) tried to advise the soldiers checking those entering Nablus, but the line was still long and densely crowded.A young man showed an appointment for radiation treatment at Assuta Hospital in Tel Aviv for his mother, and said that he had to get to Nablus to obtain a permit so that he could accompany her. The reservist agreed to let him through but insisted that he stand in line like everyone else.09:00 — 2nd Lt. Y., who’s well-known to us, arrived and we asked him to start another line for checking to reduce the crowding. Soon a new line was set up for older people outside the concrete, and the crowding eased. The young man with the Assuta appointment came up for checking, but Y. didn’t want to let him through and said he must to go to the District Co-ordinating Office (DCO) [ the army section that handles civilian matters and usually has representatives at the checkpoints, ostensibly to ease the lot of the Palestinians] and arrange the permit through them; there was no need to go into Nablus. The young man gave up and left at once without arguing. Y. allowed a group of students into Nablus although the school year is over because they have special courses in the vacation.09:30 — On the way to Huwwara, at Jit junction, there was the same unannounced roadblock we had seen before, with a long line of cars and buses and several women and children and two old people – private cars and taxis are not allowed through to Nablus and they were waiting for a bus.09:50 — Huwwara South There was a very small line and the soldiers greeted us, perhaps out of boredom and perhaps sympathetically . The checkpoint commander was Sgt.M., who had co-operated with us in the past but had also gone in for “educational” punishments.10:00 — Huwwara NorthOf the three detainees here , one was a young man whose seriously swollen hands were handcuffed behind his back . He told us in broken English that he had slept in his father’s law office and the army had come at midnight and taken him; he’d been at the checkpoint since 05:00, handcuffed, without drinking or being able to relieve himself and in the full glare of the sun. We asked the soldiers to untie his hands and they replied: “Those hands wanted to do worse things.” We didn’t argue, merely asked why he wasn’t being taken for interrogation or arrested if he was so dangerous and again we asked them to loosen the handcuffs a little. We talked to Mi. from the army’s “humanitarian” hotline and she promised to check. Suddenly, the commander came over and freed him. The young man was very grateful and shook hands with all of us. The other detainees said that all they had done was to get out of their car which was halted in a long line in order to see what the delay was, and their papers had been confiscated and they themselves forced to sit in the sun for more than two hours. The commander turned to us and said: “I don’t know about you. Perhaps you’re better than the others and perhaps not. But I tell you that the young man was released not because of you, but because we received orders; and I don’t intend to talk to you at all and I certainly won’t give you my name.”A taxi driver told us that the keys of his taxi had been taken a week ago. After the commander’s greeting to us , we didn’t try our luck again and moved to Huwwara South. A taxi with a film team from the French Canal Plus station was trying to get through but the woman journalist, A., had no press card since the Israel Government Press Office isn’t issuing them now. She said her team was making a documentary covering the entire West Bank and had already filmed one of our watches. Sgt. M. became very uptight and banished us from the immediate checkpoint area to stand in the blazing sun. When some of us came back because of the heat, he screamed at us, and threatened to call the police if we didn’t leave.There were two detainees. One said he was a peddler selling soft drinks and Sgt. M. had caught him with a tray of glasses at the end of the “sleeve”, shouted at him, taken his documents and sat him down in the sun. I found it difficult to believe that’s what had happened and asked him to show me the place. As we stood talking to him and to other Palestinians at the end of the “sleeve”, M. and another soldier arrived with cocked rifles, shouted at the peddler, chased him towards the detainees’ area and handcuffed him. The man said there was a “history” of clashes and that M. had marked him out. The woman soldier at the “humanitarian” hotline, Mi., promised to check.11:40 — We left the checkpoint: according to the soldiers we create disorder there since, when we arrive, the Palestinians start asking for all kinds of things and move about. I continued to deal with the peddler’s case when I reached home and the “humanitarian” hotline staffer told me the soldiers said that he’d tried to escape and that was why he was handcuffed. I told her the true version, as I had seen it happen, but she found it difficult to believe. Why would the soldiers lie? When she asked why I though M. had attacked the peddler, I suggested that the peddler had replied in a way that M. considered “cheeky”.