Huwwara, Wednesday 9/3/05, PMDeborah L(English translation).,Rya Y.,Yeudit F., Daliah (guest), Nurit L. 13:20 On the way to Hawarre we stopped on Route 5 near Zaweya opposite Mascha. Two of us stayed with the car and three of us went down the path off the road to bring clothes to one of the residents. He was very happy to receive them. An army jeep stopped to see what was happening since they had gotten a call that some women had gone off the road into Zaweya. We told them why we were there and they stayed with us until we left (about 10 minutes). There was no checkpoint set up at Zaweya. According to the residents of the village 80% of their land has been confiscated.13:50 At Tapuach the traffice was moving. There were from 5 to 10 cars waiting at any one time but they were not held up for more then a few minutes. We met two workers about 25 years old from Jenin who work in the industrial area and make 11 shekels an hour. They know that the Israelis get 18 shekels an hour (why this exploitation?). They received a special permit because the manager of the factory requested them by name and he is responsible for them. The taxi ride they must take costs them 50 shekels. Their travel time takes them 3 hours in each direction and they must pass 4 checkpoints from Jenin to the Tapuach Intersection and then back again . They claim it is easier then it was a few weeks ago. !?14:25 At Hawarre South there are no soldiers and pedestrians passed freely. Cars were checked in the North. We checked the South from time to time to check whether the situation had changed. At Hawarre North there were 5 detainees when we arrived. Some had been held for awhile. One was a l5 year old. We started to check what were the reasons for detaining them but they were released. Both sets of turnstiles were functioning so the people had to first wait on line behind one set and then be released to yet another set before they were then allowed to approach the soldier checking IDs. During the election the back set of turnstiles was eliminated but now they are functioning and causing the same problems and tension that they had before. There is now an electric gate run by remote control at the entrance to the detainee area .THEY CLAIM IT IS EASIER?!l5:30 Until this time there was no build up of pressure even though some of the turnstiles were not working . A line outside of the turnstiles was created for women and older people but still the increased traffic of people became unbearable and the tension and aggressions rose. It seemed that the officer of the checkpoint was doing his best to keep things going but all the turnstiles were not functioning all the time. It became clear that the officer was the one going from station to station to push the button which released the turnstile and he could not be in all places at once. He was doing this because he was teaching new soldiers how to run their station which includes the computer and the button. When we complained to the Matak Representative O’ and the officer they said they don’t have enough people at this time of day. We called the Humanitarian Moked and Raad and Matak Nablus. They promised they would check things out but the difficult situation continued almost till the end of our shift which was at l7:00.A young man, who did not want to pass through but only wanted to pass some boxes which contained baked goods to his brother who was at the southern checkpoint, had to wait a long time because no one was available to check him. On the other hand detainees were not held up for long including one man who had tried to pass through without being checked . This man seemed to be a bit confused.O’ from the Matak does his work well checking each case on it’s own merit . He his polite and respectful. In one case he helped a thirteen year old who came with his older brothers but without a birth certificate(with a bit of help from a phone call we made). In another case a man who had come with a permit that was not up to date could not be helped . When O’ told us about this case we took the man’s details and the next day we appllied urgently in his name for a new permit from an officer at the Complaint Department of the Central Command.(P’neot HaTzebur shel Pekud Merkaz)At l5:30 three of us left Hawarre for Beit Furik. Even though there were not a lot of people on line and there were 8 soldiers in the area things were not moving. It turned out the soldiers were doing an excercise to see what they would have to do if there were a sudden emergency. They had closed down the functioning of the checkpoint. Even if this kind of “practice” emergency is important to the army it isn’t exactly helpful to those who are waiting to go home and their way is constantly being held up for one reason or another.l7:15 Tapuach Intersection had 15-20 cars waiting . The checking seemed to be going smoothly with out any particular hold up.