HUWWARA, BEIT FURIK, SARRA, Sunday 15 August 2004 AMObservers: Hanna L., Nora P., Ditza I., Shifra S., Tali Y., Dina A. (reporting) and a guest colour=red> GeneralThe checkpoint was all dolled up : turnstile gates, shade, commanders who have taken a special course (I can’t believe I’m writing this…) – Good morning, thank you, hello ma’am, what can I do for you? Order and discipline. It’s amazing . But if I thought last week that cynicism had the upper hand, this week I saw just how pathetic this place really was. It won’t help. The injustice screamed out even louder.We weren’t exactly welcomed here in the past, but now they seemed to be determined to make us invisible . Soldiers didn’t respond, commanders adopted a “functional” approach – they answered politely while ignoring the essence of our questions. I felt these were definitely orders – and orders from the system, at that. Last week we were told that wasn’t so, there’s no such order. But the soldier/officer may choose to answer, or not answer us. I think this is a measure of the effect that our activity has had on the media and the fact that we have managed to make an impact on the public with the checkpoint issue as just one aspect of the occupation.The simple act of observation and documentation patently does have an impact. There’s nothing that angers them more than our little notebooks.08:00 – A line of cars was held up at Tapuach junction.08:10 – Huwwara SouthThere were 35 detainees, and only a relatively sparse queue of Palestinians waiting to go through the checkpoint. Three soldiers were on duty there with rifles pointed at civilians. A volunteer was cozying up to the soldiers. A settler van arrived and there were shouts of “The shits are here”. One of the soldiers informed me that the only person who’d talk to us would be the representative of the District Co-ordinating Office (DCO), but not the soldiers [the DCO is the army section that handles civilian matters; it usually has representatives at the checkpoints, ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians]. Students who hadn’t yet received their student cards but had registered to study were sent to the detainees’ shed, and their ID cards were taken for checking [ by the General Security Services (GSS)], never mind that their exam was due to start at 09:30. At 08:45, when some of them got [security] clearance, the checkpoint commander, L., wrote one line on each one’s papers that would enable them to get back. No doubt that he has passed the [checkpoint commanders’] course – he was politeness itself, though he did keep them at a distance so they knew their place while he jotted down the words that would save them hours on their way back. Woe to anyone who did not find him clever or nice. L. spoke English well and practised it with anyone who approached him, in proper “customer service” style. Unlike him, soldier G. was especially rough. The number of detainees fluctuated between 15 and 35 throughout the morning [detainees are typically men between the ages of 16 and 30 who do not have passage permits; their I D details are relayed by the checkpoint soldiers to the GSS where they are checked against a central list of security suspects: this cumbersome procedure in any case usually takes a long time and that time can be even longer if the soldiers wait to accumulate a batch of ID cards before phoning through the details; similarly, they may wait until they have a batch of replies before they start releasing detainees. Throughout this period, the detainees are virtually prisoners at the checkpoint since the soldiers retain the ID cards until clearance comes through]. 08:15 Huwwara North There was a young Palestinian, handcuffed, inside the “pen”. The soldiers claimed he’d gone wild on the south side of the checkpoint , raised his hand against the soldiers and tried to escape. He was there with his wife who, he claimed, was carrying a dead foetus which she must have aborted at the Nablus hospital. According to the soldiers on the north side, he was likely to be taken into custody. At the army’s so-called ‘humanitarian’ hotline they said nothing could be done. Either arrest him or decide to free him. Hanna L. managed to talk round the DCO officer here ( a lieutenant on reserve duty), and at 09:45 the man was released.10:00 – Beit Furik There were hardly any people. The village was under curfew following recent events. Here too the soldiers ignored us.10:30 – Sarra We went into Sarra because we hadn’t been here for nearly two months. The place was empty, deserted, three soldiers yawned away, it was hot, the Israeli flag waved over the outpost and its mighty concrete blocks.