Burin/Yitzhar Huwwara and Beit Furik, Saturday 12.8.06 AMObservers: Hava H, Ruthi A, Noga K, Nathanya G. and Hanna B. (reporting)Translation: Hanna K.Hisma: The wall is almost finished. The apartheid road is paved. The checking booths are ready – and everything is horrifying and terrifying.Ofra: A new wall is in the process of being erected in the outskirst of the village. Its height is about 2 meters and it is very near to the road. Judging by what we can see, a very massive land robbery is being performed here, in addition to all that has already been done in the past.Attara: near the turning to Attara from road no. 60 (the turning to the halamish settlement) a new watchtower has been errected – is this a sign that a new Checkpoint is going to be opened?Zaatara\Tapuach: There are many cars both going from north to south, and from west to east. We did not stay.Burin\Yitzhar: The CP is on its old place on road no. 60. There is a long queue of cars. Two soldiers are checking and one soldier sits on an armoured car facing the field, safeguarding his colleagues. The passage was quicker than we thought. and we did not see any delays. One taxi driver entered into a conversation\argument with the soldiers and asked “so you have decided to ruin my working day for me?” It’s not clear whether this remark had any effect – but the man passed. We saw this time, not like other days, many pedestrians going in both directions. None of them was checked. Ambulances bypassed the queue and passed quickly.We drove in a taxi to Huwwara and heard from the passengers their disappointment at the Minister for Security Amir Peretz. “We though that he would be like in the Histadrut!”Huwwara: The differentiation is alive and kicking!The CP commander “clings to us” and tries with all his might to distance us from the place where one can see what is going on. We bypassed this “prohibition” by sending “spies” to explore the CP from the hill leading to the mount of Beracha. From the everything can be seen clearly and by using the phone between us we can try and intervene when problems arise.There is a not very lively traffic of people passing from Nablus to the south. Most of the time the humanitarian queue is active. For those entering Nablus there is no checking but the turnstiles are active. There is still the unbuttoning of trousers and the “Waltz” but at least the checking is done by men. When one sees the faces of the men standing on the other side of the passage buttoning up their trousers in public it is impossible not to feel shame – what a humiliation. Two women whose faces are covered by veils are asked to the women’s checking cell and removed the veils there to compare their faces with the photos on the ID.Ambulances pass relatively quickly. A vehicle of the Health Organisation is ordered to unload all the crates and to pass them through the screening machine – but as there was no dog trainer there, the procedure was concluded rather quickly. A woman driver of a mobile clinic behaves in an assertive manner towards the soldiers and manages to pass without unloading the equipment and without making the other nurses leave the car.The handcuffed detainee: By sneaking one by one we managed to pass the enclosure and discovered a man aged about 35 years standing handcuffed in front of the solitary confinement cell. His hands are handcuffed in a cross – a very hurtful manner of handcuffing. The man was extremely annoyed and did not hesitate to express his annoyance in a loud voice. Towards us too he was suspicious, and we managed only with difficulty to learn what his ID number was, in order to try and help. We found out that he was neither a “prohibited person” of any kind, nor a wanted person. The assumption is that he complained about the passage speed. After he entered into an argument with the soldiers they imprisoned him in the solitary confinement cell – and there he began kicking the door with all his force and shouting to the soldiers “go on, imprison me already”. Our attempts to intervene were not successful – and until we left the handcuffed man was not released. We heard that the intention was to hold him in the solitary confinement cell for four hours. The soldiers gave him water which he refused to accept and from us too he refused to accept water. He claimed that he had no mobile phone – and therefore it is not clear whether he was released and when.The soldiers’ conduct: The CP commander was clearly hostile. He was not prepared to give his name, didn’t answer any question or heed any request and did his best to remove us from the site. When we stood at the empty detention cell to enjoy some shade, he tried immediately to chase us away. In the argument that ensued regarding the expulsion we pointed out that we were not causing any disturbance to his work, but he was of the opinion that “you chose out of your free will to come here, so stand in the sun, this is what you’ll get”. Only the intervention of the company commander changed the situation to something with a semblance of sanity. A few “pearls” coming from the mouths of the soldiers: “wipe the smile off your face” (and indeed what reason is there to smile in the hellish place?) “sit quietly and shut up”, and many more of the same kind….The presence of the company commander very much moderated the behaviour towards the Palestinians. The DCO representative was “hostile light”, perhaps because of the event regarding the passing over to the other side of the CP. A woman officer who commanded over the girls did her best, and complained again and again that she had no “short lists” and that therefore the passage took so long.Beit Furik: The inhabitants of Beit Furik, Beit Dajan and Salem pass, the inhabitants of the other villages are prohibited from passing. The people from the Jordan Valley may enter Nablus, but may not return.Jeva: When we returned to Jerusalem we received a complaint by phone about a very long CP at Jeva. And indeed there were hundreds of cars in the queue, the end or beginning of which it was impossible to see. As usual they were looking for a needle in a haystack – but why at the entrance to Ramallah, when then entrance into Jerusalem passed without delay? We phoned the humanitarian center and the Benjamin Division – it is hard to assume that the CP was opened due to our endeavours – but twenty minutes later they phoned to say the traffic was flowing and the CP was removed. Do you remember the “Time of the Natives” from Amira Hess’ article which was cited in “a view from the other side”?