Za’atara, Hawarra, Thursday 21.7.05 PMObservers: Eleanor D. Nurit V. Eilat B. (Nurit and Eilat reporting)Natanya translating.At home: 12.30 A report from a driver waiting to get out of Hawarra for an hour and a half already and still 5 cars before him and 6 buses and other vehicles behind him. As a result of problems with the phones we were not able to get through to the Centre the entire shift.13.35- E. at the DCO takes the complaint and will check.14.10-9 cars waiting from the west. 2 soldiers checking. No detainees. 14 minutes to a car.From North to South: 2 soldiers checking, no buses, 14 cars, a check of about 6 minutes. It appears that because of the problems getting through the checkpoint buses take another longer way.A man travelling from Nablus where he lives to his shop in Ramallah cannot pass because his ID has his home in Nablus . He can not go through because of the policy of “BIDUL” (no passage from city to city) for this moment in time at any rate. He has a permit to get into Israel and for his business in Ramallah. We could not check this with the DCO or the Humanitarian centre because of the problem with the phones. We took his details in case he should not solve the problem but eventually in a torturous way he did manage.From South to North no checking. At the TRAMPIADA many “oranges” and one soldier guarding them.14.47_Hawwara: The commander, Sergeant O. acts with respect, mature and efficient and we think he also speaks Arabic and most of the soldiers act in the same way. He approached us without threats of sanctions the entire time we were there and tried politely to comply with our requests even though at time without much success. The DCO representative was A.2 posts are manned. About 30 people and children passing quickly.Cars: 4 waiting to enter Nablus and checked quickly. About 1-2 minutes to a car. However the exit is bad and we cannot see the end of the line.One female soldier with a dog. The truck with the magnometer is missing. We ask A. and O. to open another lane but the answer is that there is no manpower.We contact Hana B. who informs us of the problem with the phones and passes on our complaint through her channels. Drivers tell us that it has taken them from 1 and a half to two hours to get through.A weird situation. A hired Israeli vehicle with two men and two women all from France, the driver only speaks a little English, going from Jerusalem to Nazareth! The soldiers do not understand what they want and the French people do not understand what is happening. They have a map 1:150,000 and a guide and there should be no problem going through Nablus. I gave them MW visiting card .15.30- 4 adult detainees but they are immediately freed.15.36- A humanitarian line is opened to deal with a large number of pedestrians and closed when the number declines.15.40- Another lane is opened for those leaving Nablus and the process is speeded up.15.45 Two new young detainees.A very new and shiny black car with yellow license plates arrives from the south and stops at the u-turn , a young man from the north jumps into the car and the driver goes off in spite of the security.15.45- Many women and children but no humanitarian line. Our companions who went to Beit Iba tell us of a bad traffic block with about 60 cars in both directions at the entrance to Yizhar on road 60 and that they cannot make connections with the army. We again ask for the help of Hana B. and speak to A. who did not know of the problem and goes there himself with H. The rest of the story in the report from Beit Iba.A police car stops suddenly close to the checkpoint. A policeman with a computer begins a random check on young men coming from the south. Suddenly he stops a young man who has come with his parents from the village Madmaah to visit his brother who is hospitalized in Nablus. He calls two soldiers to help him handcuff the youth and put him into the police car and one of the soldiers stands next to him with his rifle drawn. The mother bursts into tears. The young man asks to hand the purse of money and the cell phone to his parents. The soldier refuses and when Nurit asks why, he says the young man is wanted by the Secret Service. (Interesting question is, if a blue policeman can check and arrest a wanted Palestinian and in doing so take soldiers from the checkpoint).Nurit asks the policeman politely if the young man cannot give his parents the phone as the other son is waiting for them in Nablus. He screams at her that if she does not get away he will have her arrested and that she is cheeky. We drew back, calmed the mother down, gave them water and let them use the telephone to phone their other son. As we and others are standing there and watching the policeman receives an order to release the man . So what was all this brutal behavior by the blue police about? Many people pass quite swiftly though it happens that a woman with a baby in her arms is caught in the carousel because the soldier is busy with something else. A little boy passing with his father and other children waits patiently for the button which saves. He likes the carousel and his older brother tries in vain to take him away from his new toy. A passing dog causes panic.Between the two carousels O. stands on one side with his rfile aimed at the passersby while a military policeman checks their belongings and another military policeman stands at the lane of the males also with a soldier standing next to her and his rifle pointed.17.20- An old woman makes her way slowly and with great difficulty, helped by a young man and a walking stick to a taxi and at the checkpoint where there are none and she is collapsing she is put into an ambulance.17.55- A message is passed to Yoni, the military spokesman at the Central Comman. about Yizhar and he will try to deal with it.At the end of our shift a young man is detained for standing in the wrong place where he has been waiting for his family from the south.. The commander of the checkpoint who puts him in, to the detainees hut, says he tried to break a lock. It is difficult to know what happened but it could well be the fruits of the hours of tension at the checkpoint. His ID was not taken and it seems he is just being punished. At the end of the shift Nurit asks O. to reconsider. 18.15-Za’atara: 17 cars, no buses, from north to south. About half an hour to each car. A. and another soldier check very carefully.From the north to the east cars and many detainees whose ID’s are being checked, workers returning from work whose employers evidently from Barkan had let them off there. We explain to the soldiers who they are, and the soldiers stop the checking which has been going on a long time and send them home on foot to their villages. Most turn north in the direction of Hawarra. One tried to go right and is sent back. He explains like a schoolboy that his village is Corsa and this is the way he has to go. The soldier stops him and checks on the map where his village is. The villager knows where he lives. The soldier do not. One of them is a foreigner.Another group then arrives in an Israeli vehicle and go on their way without delay.