Huwwara, Beit Furiq 13 March 2006 a.m.Watchers: Micky F., Edna K., a skeptical neighbor (of Edna’s) and Lee D. (reporting)Za’atra (or the ‘poisoned apple’ to you)7:20 a.m.There is ‘separation’ for Tulkarm and Jenin (15 – 30 age group).There are eight cars and they cross the roadblock quite quickly. Unlike the cars in the direction of Ramallah that are in a jam – we stopped counting when we reached fifty.The soldiers prevent pedestrians from crossing although there should not be a problem. New orders.Anyone wanting to cross must do so by vehicle. “Otherwise it endangers the soldiers”. Tens of people are sent back.We contact Dagesh of the DCO, he sends Fuad (Yazid’s cousin) to us. We explain the situation to him, he goes off to find out and returns with this new information “taxis are not allowed to stop in front of the roadblock and turn around”, an order from the roadblock commander so that the security of the soldiers is ensured. When there is congestion of both pedestrians and cars it is difficult to secure the place – it is a danger to the lives of the soldiers. The roadblock must be crossed (did we already say there is a jam of more than fifty vehicles?) and then they can turn back at the roundabout. There is no chance of crossing without a taxi… “But don’t worry girls, the DCO suggested to the Brigade: “build another roadblock here, for pedestrians, lovely, organised, with turnstiles, space on both sides… and then there will be a solution for the pedestrians”. Hallelujah, another roadblock with turnstiles, the song ‘Daddy Take Me To The Fair’ takes on a new meaning.Meanwhile people who had got fed up with the jams started walking in the direction of the roadblock – they do not know, of course, that they will be turned back.When we explain to Fuad that no one knows about the new decision of the charismatic roadblock commander, he says that he will inform one of the taxi drivers and he will tell the rest. OK.Huwwara8:19 a.m.There are few vehicles at the exit from Nablus, about ten.There is one detainee, a medical team member from Ramallah Hospital, held for almost an hour.A girl soldier checks a young woman in the cubicle. She is stripped. From the space between the floor and the door we can see and understand what is happening. She leaves the cubicle weeping. Humiliated. One of us approaches her. She does not want to talk “You can’t understand”. She disappears among the depressed and humiliated crowd. She is naked wrapped in her clothes.There is a celebratory atmosphere at the roadblock. The DCO chief, the Brigade CO and all the ‘brass’ you can think of are at the roadblock. It is a wonderful opportunity for us to ask the ‘heads’ about Za’atra and the new order. The answer is short and clear: “There is nothing to be done with pedestrians. Let them go by car.”When all the ‘brass’ leave the DCO tells us that the mobile x-ray machine is due to be at the roadblock at least four days a week since many people leave Nablus and its surroundings in the direction of Jordan and are held up for no reason. According to the orders of the Brigade CO the x-ray machine should be at the roadblock at 6:00 a.m. but in fact it shows up at 8:00 a.m. for about an hour and disappears. Sometimes it does not arrive at all. The matter is being attended to.One of the soldiers again demands that we move back. We explain that we are allowed to go up to the turnstile; he is not prepared to listen, as usual.Ah… if only I were a woman in blue and white…A bus that arrived at the same time we did (8:19 a.m.) gets to the checkpoint at 8:40 a.m. The bus is empty it contains only the driver. The inspection takes eleven minutes. Did we already say it was just for one man?Dagesh prepared a page to monitor the waiting time of each and every bus. In that case it would be worth looking at.Shouts. The roadblock commander: “They only understand force.” Who? We ask. “The cousins!”At the entrance to the roadblock there are building materials, netting… what is it for? A lane is being built for those returning to Nablus so that they won’t need to walk in the mud by the detainees’ hut or on the road. The commander continues with his pearls: “What a roadblock we have here! There isn’t one like it even in Switzerland!”We keep reminding them about the detainee, it’s being checked, but we are given some information – he is wanted by the Shabak. There is no chance of him getting out in the near future. He is hungry. He has been detained now for over two hours. We buy him a falafel. He holds it, he is unable to swallow.9:05 a.m.Life is suspended.No one goes in and no one goes out. The traffic is stopped on both sides. Soldiers with their weapons at the ready stand opposite people who multiply in a huge jam of uncertainty. “The Rooster” an exercise in the humorous language of the army.The show starts. The soldiers run around with their weapons at the ready, shouts: “a terrorist near the lavatories!” “One of ours is wounded beside the fence…” and other shouts of gifted children in the school playground at break time, after they learned in a history lesson that “Arabs are disgusting” and saw on t.v. that “Palestinians are Jyfa…”We all look on in amazement at what is going on, it is all documented on camera, a ‘b’ rated film on the AXN channel. The screenplay is well known, the main actors look amateur anyone who wants to see it is welcome. A review of the filming can be sent to me but the acting and the screenplay are the responsibility of the armed forces. After the call of the rooster there is an in-depth discussion on the quality of the exercise. The commander claims it was unacceptable and that we lost a soldier! In future it should all go smoothly.Two Indian nuns are put into the detainees’ shed. Their passports have been taken from them and no one explains what is happening to them. They are confused and anxious. We ask Dagesh to deal with it because the girl soldier refuses to talk to us. Dagesh shouts at the girl soldiers: “You are not allowed to detain foreign passport holders.” For your information. That is a very clear instruction. He returns their passports to the nuns and sends them away. When the soldier is asked why she thought she could put two nuns in the detainees’ hut the answer is: “They were rude to me”. Dagesh threatens to make a complaint about her.Meanwhile another four people are put into the detainees’ hut. One of them is a man whose wife and baby are waiting for him outside the hut.Dagesh intervenes and they are released.9:30 a.m.The detainee who sees that everyone who is put into the shed is released and only he remains after more than three hours goes completely mad. He leaves the shed and starts to shout in a broken voice, starts to strip: “Check me… well, check me,” he shouts in Arabic. “I have been waiting here for hours and no one will tell me what the problem is. Check me, there’s no problem, check but let me go.” The man, in his twenties, does not permit the soldiers surrounding him to touch him. He pushes them and they push him. “You yourselves force us to want to blow ourselves up – look at the way you behave.” Everything is filmed. He shouts for more than ten minutes with tears in his eyes. An officer who realises that it is all being filmed comes over to me and asks me to stop filming. He stands 5cm away from me, blocks the camera and does not allow me to move while he demands that I move and it’s enough to make me go mad. It took more than three hours to get the man in the shed to go mad and I am losing it after a minute. I have nothing to lose. For a person without rights in the shed it takes a lot more courage and much more pain… and he also has much more to lose. 9:40 a.m.The detainee’s documents are returned to him. The ‘security risk’ has turned into ‘safe’. It turns out that his brother is in jail in Israel and the whole family is marked. He can’t cross at any rate because he is from Jenin.We intervene again and remind them that he is from the medical team of the hospital. Anwar intervenes and explains to the roadblock commander that if he “is from the medical team he must be allowed to cross even if he is from Jenin.”Two lanes are opened for the inspection of vehicles.9:47 a.m.Anwar and Dagesh succeed in getting the detainee across, the medical team crosses, he weeps, thanks us all. He shakes hands and with a broken face goes on his way.Beit Furiq.The roadblock opened at 6:00 a.m. The soldiers say, “by mistake, usually it does not happen.”We approached Gil – he says he will check it out. He gets back to us and says that the soldiers said it was not true and they opened up properly.Bare faced lies after they admitted to us that they did not open on time..On a regular basis between the hours of 6:00 and 7:00 a.m., at the peak of the rush hour, a police patrol car is there and gives out fines of hundreds of shekels for headlights, seat belts, too many passengers…AwartaThere is no work. Closure. How lucky there is some peanuts etc.HuwwaraThe inspections are very physical. Girl soldiers check men thoroughly too. The Palestinians should thank the army – a free feel up. Thanks to the army they walk more, sport and physical activity are very important for health… oh yes, and they are also made to stop for a ‘respite’. Who said that the occupation is destructive?At Yitzhar the permanent roadblock is not there, it has been moved a few metres into the road from Yitzhar.Tapuach – Za’atra11:15 a.m.44 cars hardly moving.