BEIT IBA, HUWWARA, Thursday 22 July AMWatchers: Ninette B., Aharona M., Osnat A., Dina A., Micky P., Yudit A.D. (reporting)colour=red>07:50 — Jubara Heavy equipment working on the road. In place of the junction, there’s now a concrete expanse surrounded by a concrete wall. The checkpoint is empty of Palestinians.08:25 — Beit Iba There were only a few people in line. Women and men of the right age (i.e. the over 30s) went through reasonably fast. There were about 10 detainees when we arrived, all students from An-Najah University in Nablus, who had an examination this morning – but students are only allowed through on Wednesdays [and Saturdays; the university week in the Occupied Territories runs from Saturday to Wednesday, since the Moslem day of rest is Friday. The Israel army has an arrangement with An-Najah whereby registered students with student cards are allowed to leave Nablus on Wednesdays and return on Saturdays without having trouble at the checkpoints].A., from the District Co-ordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that handles civilian matters, which usually has representatives at the checkpoints , ostensibly in order to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians] arrived and told us that in the end, after checking [ of the detainees’ ID details against the General Security Services’ (GSS) list of security suspects], everyone will go through. We wonder how come on Wednesdays these students are “saints”, and on Thursdays they become “security risks”. Those are the instructions!09:30 — We left, and there were still 10 detainees. A van driver, an Israeli citizen from Acre, was taking patients to hospital. He and his passengers had all the necessary permits (the driver said they were all cancer patients, the soldier said they were hospital employees). As the driver started to move off after the check, the soldier noticed a plastic bag stuffed full of jeans. Vehicle and driver were detained and the police were summoned [it is the police, rather than the army, who deal with Israeli citizens committing offences in the Occupied Territories]. The reason: the driver ‘s permit is for carrying passengers but not goods. We asked what that had to do with security. The soldier said it wasn’t the first time and the driver had been cautioned in the past. The driver said that, in the course of the argument, the soldier had kicked the van. They’ve been waiting at least an hour for the police.09:30 — There was an unannounced checkpoint at Jit junction. Spikes had been placed across the width of the road blocking it in three directions and there were two soldiers there : but otherwise, not a soul around. And five minutes later, at Yizhar junction, a similar sight.O9.40 — Huwwara North There’s a new ritual here. Every morning two Palestinian musicians arrive with their instruments, by order! They entertain the soldiers and are then allowed through. The musicians told us that this was not their idea of fun, to put it mildly.When we arrived there were about 15 detainees. At 11:50 they were still waiting. A. from the DCO was there and in response to all our attempts to speed up the procedure he claimed that the GSS was labouring under a heavy workload [the GSS must cross-check the ID details relayed to them from the checkpoints against its list of security suspects and relay clearance or otherwise back to the checkpoints. This is a lengthy procedure which can take four hours and more .] Meanwhile the detainees were baking in the sun in their new concrete “pen”. The soldiers were working deliberately slowly, with a lot of shouting, and with rifles held at the ready.Huwwara South There were no detainees. The soldiers refused to check the documents of those of the “wrong” age and sex [i.e. men aged between 16 and 30], including two sick young men with referrals to hospital, and two fathers with children , one who was suffering from burns, the other with chest pains, en route to hospital.We contacted D. B. (DCO Health Coordinator) who promised to check and let us know, which she did shortly after, approving their passage. She sent her answer to the checkpoint commander who, in response, shouted at us for intervening in humanitarian cases and threatened to banish us. He said he took orders only from the brigade CO, and that DCO instructions were only recommendations. Micky insisted it was our civic duty not to turn a blind eye to humanitarian injustice, and he then took the documents for checking. Several minutes later, he announced triumphantly that the Palestinians in question had no permission to go through. We called the DCO representative and telephoned D.B. again. At 12.00 they went through one by one.A student with registration forms for An-Najah was not allowed through to complete registration and obtain a student card. The DCO told him to send someone over 35 to do the paper-work for him! Several young men, whose ID details show them as resident in Nablus. were not allowed through and were not even checked, but simply sent back. The commander insisted they were lying. The afternoon watch informed us that the problem was later cleared up..