Huwwara, Sunday 30.7.06 PMObservers: Tal H., Judit B., Galit G., Naomi L. (reporting)Za’atara (Tapuach) Junction – 25 vehicles from the west, 2 soldiers, one checking.From Huawra, 53 vehicles waiting in a long slow line. We informed the army humanitarian hotline that promised us to look into the situation and try to speed things up.Burin (Ytizhar) Junction – 11 vehicles, most of them arriving from CP Huwara, a minute and a half drive up the road (where they had already waited endlessly).Were this our first day at the Checkoint, were we to choose one of the following –callousness, stupidity, ignorance, helplessness, indifference, basic lack of understanding what it means to face a civilian population, immaturity, infringement of human dignity (say nothing of his human freedom), total loss of compassion or shame, total lack of common sense – we would just end up saying – all of the above.15:00 – Huwara CP commander – Sergeant D., DCO representative – D.7 detainees welcome us waving their arms. Some of them were detained when caught this forenoon at Awarta, going “around the checkpoint”. They confirm this. Another youngster is led to the pen by a soldier who explains that “anyone pushing in line messes up and this is not a punishment”.CP commander Sergeant D. is busy inspecting the personal effects of the women using the special side line that is especially long. The younger men’s lines are full to bursting, the detector-dog trainer soldier-girl hangs on to the ‘humanitarian’ special side line, harassing as usual. From the watchtower, a soldier roars at the pedestrians, ordering them about.15:37 – most of the women are through and the side line is closed. A long line of 100 men is left facing the closed gate. The CP commander is busy talking with the dot-trainer, her dog is exhausted from the heat so she has no special task. A man waiting since 15:37 finally out of the ‘humanitarian’ line at 16:56. About 10 minutes later it was opened again. Since women have precedence, the men are still standing, waiting almost motionless. The commander pummels the pedestrians with his manual magnetometer, peers into packages and bags, ignoring their IDs. An elderly man complains to us that the magnetometer is held very close to the women’s private parts and that offends him. A doctor leaving the line tells us he waited for two hours.At the younger men’s line – total havoc, crowding and pushing. A soldier stands on the separation concrete ledge between the lines, and waves his rifle over the people’s heads, yelling, “just get back!” They respond in protest yells. Every time the commander stops to speak with anyone, the special side line is halted. An ambulance waits for the soldier to finish telling us where we may or may not stand, before he can proceed to be checked.16:00 – 2 soldiers busy ‘making order’ in the very crowded shed. For the time being, they’re not letting anyone proceed. Until people will make nice lines. At this point we discover the DCO representative at the CP. 20 minutes later the securing soldiers come out of the lines, resume their posts – rifles drawn as always – in front of the checking MPwomen, and announce: “Let’s go, back to work”.Female soldiers check men, requiring them to bare their torso and their calves. we report to the DCO rep. about the 20 minute halt earlier on, and he confirms “it’s a real mess today”.16:12 -Soldier D. enters the lines again. He is taller than most, very threatening with his rifle, and pushes the waiters back away from the turnstiles. Until he achieves his task, (people don’t easily give up their positions), all checks are halted again. When the DCO rep asks the soldiers why the line is not moving, the trickle resumes.At the vehicle checking lane, all passengers are taken out, stood in a line and all men are required to bare their torso and legs and pirouette. Foreign passport-holders pass along the road, the DCO rep processes them through.Detainees’ IDs travel between soldiers’ trouser pockets.16:22 – Soldier D. maintains his high position, pointing his weapon at people’s heads. He regulates the passageway, enabling one at a time to proceed to the turnstile.For the waiting Palestinians nothing has changed – the crowding and exasperation now take place one meter further away from the turnstiles, that’s all. This calms the MP women who no longer screech “get back!” as they usually do.16:27 – The CP commander takes the detainees’ IDs out of his pocket, questioning them ‘why did you go around the CP?” Earnestly not understanding why in the world they don’t readily come to the CP, volunteer to crowd for hours on end, at gunpoint, at the mercy of women MPs. Why indeed avoid the checkpoint…?Having reiterated for them the nature of their violation, they are released.The young man left in the pen is graced with the commander’s rhetorical question “Why did you push?” The idle detector-dog lady follows the CP commander around doggedly. While he speaks to the detainees she smokes, exhaling straight in their faces. When we comment to her about this, she says: “This is not a mall. Smoking is permitted.” An Israeli ID-holder coming out of Nablus tells us he’s been waiting in line since 13:00. After all the waiting he is detained and his ID stored inside the commander David’s pocket. He says his wife lives in Nablus and he must see her once in a while. Comander D. insists he enter the pen, at the same time releasing the ‘pusher’.16:40 – A woman and young boy ask us to locate their 14-year old brother in the line. No chance for this, as the soldiers do not cooperate.16:58 – an Israeli family in an Israeli license-plated car is held up at the exit from Nablus. The police is summoned for them and for the Israeli ID holder in the detainee pen. The latter goes to the water tanker to get a drink and is immediately scolded by the CP commander for leaving the pen (6 feet away) without permission. “What did I tell you? You want to get out? Gotta ask for permission!” The DCO rep resents the dog-trainer lady for “setting the rules in this CP”.17:20 – The “humanitarian” special side line is alternately opened and closed. Meanwhile about 100 people have already accumulated along it, the dog trainer stands almost touching them, pointing her gun at women and children, walking along their line and instructing mothers who seated their toddler kids on the concrete wall to take them down (in other words, hold them in their arms again while waiting). All Israeli ID holders are released before the police arrive.We’re told that in 2 days’ time these soldiers will be going up to Lebanon…17:35 – loud yells in the waiting lines. The ‘humanitarian’ side line is closed yet again, as over 60 women, children babies and elderly people wait. We call the army hotline again.17:41 – ambulance arrives, lights flashing, siren sounding. 5 soldiers are busy inspecting one taxi and its passengers. The ambulance has been waiting now for 10 minutes. It is in a rush to Jumain to evacuate 4 seriously wounded victims of a traffic accident. Only upon our demand of CP commander D., does he finally make himself available to check the ambulance and release it.17:50- side line closed. Soldiers still trying to tidy up the waiting lines, yelling incessantly. Men still required to bare themselves to the women soldiers, who are not very nervous and tired and one of them never ceases to yell. She shrieks in Hebrew at a young boy who understands not one word. The soldier takes him to the inspection booth and tells him to take off his shirt. In a plastic bag another 3 identical t-shirts are found, with writing in Arabic and the national white, black, red and green Palestinian colors are displayed. The shirts are CONFISCATED and the boy sent on his way. He has not chance of retrieving them. We complained at the army hotline and the answer was that “at the Brigade HQ no one knows of any shirts being confiscated!”18:00 -MPwoman inspects student’s notebook and confiscate it for the Palestinian flag drawn inside it. When we intervene, the notebook is released but its owner is already gone.18:12 – civilian police (blue) arrives. Since his Israeli-ID-holder “clients” have been released, he has nothing better to do than to demand our IDs and explain that the only place we may station ourselves is near the unit flag far off at the entrance to the CP compound, from where nothing at all may be observed. He also scolds us for disturbing the soldiers doing their jobs. We held a lengthy argument and eventually he handed back the ID and left. We stayed just where we were.18:40 – A detainee in the concrete cell/hold. We know him from previous vigils. He once changed his family name and because he worked some years abroad, was detained by the GSS and held for questioning for 40 days. Since nothing was found to incriminate him, he was released and ever since, his name appears on the GSS lists and he is harassed every time he crosses the checkpoints. he was released 15 minutes later.19:05 – The shed still full to bursting! One MPwoman checking, yelling, throwing fits. 7 soldiers standing idle on the vehicle checking lane.19:15 – dozens of high school graduates who have finished their studies honorably were invited with their families by the Najah University in Nablus for a festive graduation ceremony, where they received their personal diplomas, festively decorated with the image of the Paelstinian flag and the portrait of the late Arafat.In addition, each graduate received a scarf emblazoned with the national kuffiye-pattern in black and white, likewise decorated with portrait and the inscription, “We revere the memory of Abu Amar”. All diplomas and scarves are CONFISCATED, piled up inside the checking post beside the t-shirts confiscated earlier. The detector-dog lady goes through the waiting lines, taking the scarves from people, one by one. At the vehicle line as well. Whole families stand around waiting for the diplomas to be returned.After several complaints to the army hotline, the diplomas are returned to their owners, though most of them had given up and gone by now. Scarves? No go. The CP commander explains the “they (the scarves) had incited the guys at the CP, it was my judgment as CP commander and I’ll not return them for they are “INCITEMENT MATERIAL.” Later we heard the same explanation from the representative of the army humanitarian hotline, verbatim: the scarves had served to incite the people standing at the CP. Not the crowding. Not the hours of waiting in the heat. Not the humiliating checks, not the shouting and the drill. No. The scarves that Najah University had given to high school graduates – those were the cause of the youngsters, no more ‘incited’ than ever…19:42 – the humanitarian side line is still full to bursting. Many families arriving festively dressed from the celebration at the university, and the side gate is locked. Little children falling asleep in their parents’ arms. A couple with such a sleeping toddler in their arms and 3 other tiny children ask to walk along the paved lane. The soldiers push then into the waiting lines. Pleas don’t help. We called the hotline again, and were promised that a DCO officer is on his way and he’ll take care of all the confiscated diplomas, scarves and shirts.Because of the scarf search, the MP woman is now instructing young men to take out their undershirt and she manually separates the undershirt and over-shirt to check for contraband scarves!! Then she has no problem rummaging inside trouser pants, front and back, including quite right jeans. Still several made it through and we even received one as a present, our concrete evidence of what this is, what is written and drawn on them, and a silent witness to the intense shame we felt throughout this humiliating, debasing, idiotic ritual in front of proud parents returning from their children’s graduation celebration.20:30 – we hade to leave. The CP was still bull of men, women, and children, yells and protests. The promised DCO rep did not arrive. The soldiers continued their confiscation campaign, and checks proceeded as slowly as before.On our way home we were called by the hotline and informed that the DCO rep had finally reached the CP, we heard again that same explanation about the inciting scarves – that same old lie, and as for the shirts – the Brigade HQ knows of no such episode. We volunteered to take a polygraph test…These are the soldiers, and their commanders, that in a day or two will be going off to the war in Lebanon. Woe to us, even more woe to them