Hawwara 22 May 2005 Watchers: Sharon, V., and Ditzah Y (reporting).7:40 a.m.Near Marda – 10 vehicles awaiting checks.7:50 a.m.Tapuach Junction – not a single vehicle at the roadblock. Very few cars travelling from the direction of Hawwara.8:00 a.m.Yitzhar Junction – at the snap roadblock, which has now become a permanent roadblock – 16 vehicles await checks.8:10 a.m.Hawwara – quiet. Heavy traffic towards Nablus is moving freely. Vehicles entering Nablus are checked. About 20 people in the turnstile queue to leave Nablus. No one is detained. The x-ray checking machine is present and working all the time we were at the roadblock.A change in the scenery – an order from the new brigade commander to wear hats adds colour to the roadblock. (Blue – the military police and red – the paratroops.)9:00 a.m.A Palestinian man whose documents have been checked and he has been allowed to cross returns to the road block complaining that some accessory of his is at the roadblock, something very important to him. The soldiers: Get out of here! Yallah, move! (This is not done quietly.) They maintain that they have not got anything. The man insists, and finally the accessory is found, indeed in the checking area. (Although not where he was checked.) He is given it and leaves the place furious.9:20 a.m.There are two ambulances at the entrance to Nablus. One of them is taking a patient to the hospital. The soldiers are in no hurry to check and release them. We find ourselves in the position of getting them to hurry up – which coincidently happens again later in the shift – and have to draw the attention of Officer A. and the soldiers to the fact that the ambulance and after that other cars – are waiting to be checked. The soldiers take their time; they are in no hurry to get anywhere. About 30 people are in the turnstile queues. Most of the time only one checker is present – because the other one has gone to eat, or has had to replace the soldier in the lookout point.10:00 a.m.2 detainees. A man and a woman (there is no connection between them) both from Beit Chanina. The woman has come to Nablus to visit her sister. The soldiers claim that this is not the first time that she has entered Nablus without a pass and send her to the lock-up. The man says that he came to Nablus to visit his sick sister. He says that he usually meets her in Ramallah, both he and she have permits go there, but she has fallen ill and he has come to visit her at her home in Nablus. A very simple and natural thing – except when they are under occupation. He too is detained and the police are called to deal with both of them.10:15 a.m.There are about 25 people in the turnstile queue.An elderly woman comes with two children aged about 11 and 13. She claims that they are her children. The soldier who is checking shouts at her: Why are you lying! He turns to his colleague: Throw her out of here! We ask Bassem from the D.C.O. to intervene, and it turns out that the woman has ‘adopted’ the children for the roadblock crossing. We are not surprised that she lied for this purpose, less acceptable to us is the tone which the soldier used to her, a woman who could have been his grandmother. The woman continued on her way and the children are disappointed, one of them even starts to cry, and have to go back whence they came.10:45 a.m.We leave the roadblock.Later I telephoned the Israeli Palestinian. He told me that the police had indeed arrived and just warned him not to enter Nablus any more.