Hawwara,Thursday, 6.10.05 PMObservers: Halali P. Aliza M. Nurit W.L. (reporting)Translation: Miriam P.Summary: New instructions for CP routine. Long waits, high tension and stress like a year ago or more.Humanitarain Case Treatment.14:00 Tapuah: There is hardly any traffic from the West. From North (Nablus) 10 cars. 2-3minutes waiting time. Checkpoint manned by artillery soldiers. They aren’t familiar with our activity. No detainees.Yitzhar: rolling checkpoint/temporary (lately any temporary is there for good), long column of cars including trucks from Nablus and Jit, most of them had already gone through the torture of checking and detainment at the previous checkpoint. The checkpoint is manned by the Border Police. They ask us not to stand close by. When asked by us why is the extra checking the answer was: just so, it’s better this way (to whom?)14.20: Hawwara: Extremely crowded at checkpoint because of the Rosh Hashana events. When we arrived there was a humanitarian queue but inside the concrete buildings people were pressed together pushed against the carrousels at the back, between 80-100 people, nearly all young men, mostly students. Out of the 4 carrousels only one was open. The soldier stationed next to it let only one person at a time through, while in front of him there were 4-5 other soldiers, pointing their guns at him. Outside the concrete buildings there were more soldiers on both sides with their weapons at ready too. The man was ordered to remove his belt and place his personal belongings on an improvised table . Then he passed the X-ray device check and his body was manually searched several times. Next he had to wait at the front carrousels. During most of our presence there were only one or two soldiers working at the station where the documents were being checked , mainly because of the installation of the new shielding system. So that even at the final stage of the Via Dolorosa everything was carried out at an incredibly slow pace. During most of our stay this was the situation and from time to time terrible disturbances would arise at the back of nervous and humiliated people and loud, scary outcries could be heard. Even the soldiers were unable to control them shouting ‘arja lowara” a few times and trying in vain to “straighten out” the line. From our point of vantage , the instructions for the new checkpoint routine seemed more like collective punishment and moreover, – as sure prescription for an explosion. Indeed, many of those who managed to get through after about an hour and a half and were questioned by us, didn’t conceal their bitterness, pain and anger not just for the unbearable delay after a fasting day but mainly because of the humiliation. They even turned against us: “You are present but you don’t help. See what they do to us. “ One of them even sounded a warning saying everything that is done to them will some day blow up in the face of Israel! Some others stopped to talk with us about the situation and expressed their sorrow that peace cannot be reached in this way.In truth, all we could do was to express our solidarity with their hardships and say under our breath that they mustn’t give up hope.On the vehicle lane – a bottleneck. The line of cars was winding down from the barrier far back in the distance. Although they were checking in two lanes but in each lane there was only one soldier so the process took an endless time. We asked the CP commander why and his answer was that there wasn’t enough manpower. It didn’t really look that way considering what was going on back at the carousels. To think that only a few hundred meters further on southwards they were going to be stopped again for another checkup at the rolling checkpoint!!!15.05: The stations for document checkups are closed for a while because of the new shield system installation works. This was the last straw. We turned to A. the DCO officer who was present for all the time. But obviously he was unable to help. Though he said nothing one could tell, he wasn’t happy with the new routine instructions.15.20: One detainee. He got fed up so he tried to sneak through but got caught. We reminded the soldiers that one mustn’t be detained as a measure of punishment. The guy got pulled out from under the roof and was sent back to the end of the line.15.35: A young girl who was waiting for a long time near the checkpoint became suspect and was taken by a woman soldier for body inspection. She was instantly released after checking her ID. The stress gets to everybody.An elderly woman dragged slowly by a young man is stopped by us nearly fainting. We gave her water but she only washed her mouth and face but dared not drink. We looked around for some car to give her a lift but the car lane is completely stuck.Haleli checked how long it took to check one person at the carousel with 4 soldiers around: not less than 1 minute and a half. By then we had already phoned first the IDF Centre then to operations commander T. who listened patiently to our complaints. We had specifically pointed out that the accumulation of a nervous and hungry crowd could be dangerous to the soldiers too. He promised to look into it.15.45: The checking of a bus and its passengers took half an hour.16.30: Since there was no change for the better we phoned the battalion commander. We couldn’t reach him so we called brigade commander Y. B. We resented the intrusion and apprehended us. We apologized but pointed out the necessity of warning and described to him the bad situation that looked to us as a sure scenario for explosion hoping that following his intervention something will change. We overheard some talk on the wireless but no real change could be felt until 17.00 hr. when the flow of out comers from the checkpoint seemed to intensify.16.45: An old car reached the checkpoint with a young woman from Bet Hanina and her old, handicapped mother. She asked to drive to Nablus with her car. She said her father was dying and they had to see him. It turned out she was born in Nablus and married to an Israeli. She owned both a Palestinian and an Israeli ID as well as a membership card from an American welfare organization. Her paralyzed mother who owned a Palestinian ID had been cared for by her at her home in Bet Hanina. They were allowed to enter but not with their car. She pleaded that it was impossible to move her paralyzed mother besides the car needed repair in Nablus but it was all in vain. We phoned S.A. the public complaints officer and explained her that it was an urgent humanitarian matter. She promised to try and help as soon as she would get a fax with all the relevant details but she didn’t authorize it on the phone. The car was left at the checkpoint. The taxi driver tried kindly to assist the paralyzed mother to move out of her car and into the taxi but the old woman who was unable to speak, out of religious considerations refused his help by body language. We came to help and managed to move her gradually into the taxi. The soldiers were watching from their posts. It lasted many minutes. When finally she was seated in the taxi, she tapped with her healthy hand on the car’s door to attract our attention and blew us a kiss in the air to thank us. Later we called her daughter to tell her to come back to the checkpoint and move away her car for fear of it being damaged. (When I called her later that night from home to fill in her father’s ID number, she told me that she had gone back to the checkpoint with her brother, had the car towed to Hawwara hoping it would be fixed the next day and could be taken to Nablus. What a trouble. I sent the fax to the public complaints officer.)17.00-17.30: There is some improvement in the flow of pedestrians but not in the car lane. Aliza managed to station herself at the humanitarian gate to observe the passage of women and elderly men and watching at the same time what was going on between the concrete buildings. According to her, the soldier posted at the humanitarian gate performed the checkout properly and fairly fast.Since we couldn’t leave the Hawwara checkpoint even for a moment, our colleagues from Beit Iba came to our aid and went to Beit Fourik after 17.00. Many thanks for that.17.45: We left for home deeply frustrated. The roadblock at Yitzhar junction continued to be active. A long line could be seen at Tapuach junction as well. Those waiting in their cars there had no chance whatsoever to reach their homes at the time of breaking the fast. The sun that was setting will rise tomorrow shining impassively on the same syndrome.