BEIT IBA, HUWWARA, Tuesday 15 June 2004 AMObservers: Rivka A., Yif’at K., Susan L., Deborah L., Ruhama S., Etty P. (reporting); guest: Effy P. (photographer) colour = red>7:45 — Jit junction There was a line of 30 vehicles from the direction of Beit Iba and some five taxis in the opposite direction.7:50 Just before Beit Iba there was an unannounced road-block manned by the Border Police at which all vehicles travelling to or from the (regular ) checkpoint, underwent an additional check.Beit Iba – 08:00 At the entrance to Nablus some 200 people were waiting inside the concrete square and in a special line for older people outside the square. Yet there was only one soldier checking both lines, first the one, then the other. A young man presented a summons to appear at the District Co-ordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that handles civilian matters], on which the date had been crossed out with a pen and next to it today’s date had been written; he claimed that the official at the DCO had made a mistake and that this explained the crossing out. The soldier, A., didn’t believe this and politely replied that only the officer could make a final decision on this case. A man with a referral for a neurological examination at a hospital in Nablus and medical papers testifying to the many medical examinations he’d had there was not allowed through. A telephone call to D.B. [responsible for medical services in the Occupied Territories] brought a promise that she would help.There were six detainees. Traffic out of Nablus was only sparse and went through quickly. All our requests and attempts to help brought the answer: “When M., the officer get here, he’ll talk to you”. Our calls to R., at the Civil Administration at Beth-El, went unanswered –perhaps they hadn’t yet started work there.08:45 — Lt. M. arrived, but was in a great hurry, only here for a minute . Even so he let the young man referred to above go through , and explained to me that if such a mistake had occurred they should have marked the correct date with a coloured marker pen, so that soldiers at the checkpoint would know that the Palestinian had not made the alteration himself. A retired teacher wished to get to Nablus to pick up his wages: he explained that his young son had been summoned to the police in Huwwara today at 10:30 but had no permit to enter Nablus; the father wanted to give him money to travel to Huwwara using the wages he was due to get in Nablus . Lt. M. thought the young man was using this as an opportunity to enter Nablus and wouldn’t allow him to proceed. We promised to help him to get to Huwwara and reassured the father who went off to Nablus alone. On the way he told us that this son had been arrested at the Al-Auja checkpoint on Wednesday 9 June at 11:00 in the morning, and that they’d smashed the water-pump (which he perhaps used for irrigation?) that he’d brought from Jericho and held him until 18:00, and now he didn’t have money to buy a new pump.The line got shorter and M. had to go, but first we tried to convince him to deal with another case of a taxi driver whose papers had been taken from him: the man had to travel to Jordan tomorrow and was trying to obtain a permit from the DCO to leave the country. M. listened but shifted responsibility to A., the commander of the checkpoint, who, in turn, said that only an officer could decide on this — he wasn’t convinced when we said that in this case the officer had transferred to him the right to decide. Another story: an elderly man told us that he’d had go though three checkpoints thus far : one near [the Jewish Israeli settlement of ] Einav, one at Jit, the Border Police road-block near Beit Iba, and now this fourth checkpoint, on a journey which should take 10 minutes by car ….09:30 on the way to Huwwara we saw that the unannounced Border Police road-block had disappeared. At the Jit crossing – a line of 40 cars was waiting coming from the direction of Shavei Shomron.10:00 Huwwara North.There were five detainees, one of whom told us that he’d waited four hours at Beit Furik this morning. One had a summons to the DCO and held a current permit with today’s date on it, but still he was told to wait [while the General Security Services (GSS, or Shabak, or Shin Bet) cross-checks his ID details — phoned to them from the checkpoint — against a list of security suspects; until this security clearance is relayed back to the checkpoint, he and other detainees remain virtual prisoners there, since the soldiers hold their ID cards in the meantime] – apparently this has become a regular feature. Three taxi-drivers told us that their taxis were impounded today and they’d received no receipts for them .Two women soldiers examined two women in the special tent for this purpose — because they’d thought the Palestinians looked pregnant. The women said they weren’t pregnant — and the examination apparently convinced the women soldiers. 11:25 We left, via Huwwara South. On the way back, at the Tapuah junction, there was a line of 28 vehicles waiting to pass.