HUWWARA, Monday 9 August 2004 PMObservers: Riva C., Anat S., Sivan T., Hagar K. (reporting) colour=red>At Huwwara North traffic moved well, apart from very long delays imposed to punish “disobedient” taxi drivers (i.e. they’d parked in the wrong place). At the southern checkpoint, it was a very difficult watch, mainly because of the anger of the commander, A., at the article in Yediot Aharonot [a mass circulation evening paper which had just run an article highly critical of the behaviour of some soldiers at the checkpoints]. Huwwara NorthApart from treatment of the detainees, the line moved very fast and people went through almost immediately. The x-ray caravan, which had been brought back, and the presence of A., from the District Co-ordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that handles civilian matters; it usually has representatives at the checkpoints, ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians] seemed to have had an effect. Worthy of note was the change in the way soldiers held and aimed their weapons—rifles were no longer aimed at people, not even at the detainees. Some of the soldiers simply had their weapons hanging off one shoulder by the strap, others , while holding the weapons at the ready, nevertheless aimed them away from the crowd.Most of the time there were some 15 detainees [detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 who have no passage permits. The checkpoint soldiers phone their ID details to the General Security Services (GSS) which cross-checks them against a central list of security suspects and then phones the results back to the checkpoint. This cumbersome procedure, which often takes a long time, can take even longer if the checkpoint soldiers wait to accumulate a batch of ID cards before they contact the GSS, or if they wait to get back a batch from the GSS rather than releasing individuals as clearance comes through for each. During this time, the detainees are virtually prisoners at the checkpoints since the soldiers retain their ID cards until clearance arrives]. Five of the dteainees were taxi drivers, two – over the age of 50, detained as “punishment” (we were told so explicitly by A. and by D. the checkpoint commander) for parking in a spot which interfered with checkpoint traffic . We contacted the army’s “humanitarian” hotline, because one of the reports had stated that detention as punishment was forbidden. They took the details and promised to check. After three minutes, the head (as she identified herself) called back and confirmed that punishment detention was forbidden; she said she would check the details because “she couldn’t believe that was the reason for the detention.” She promised to call back and, after a series of calls on my part, she said she was waiting for an answer from the DCO. I offered to let her talk to the DCO representative at the checkpoint, but she refused, saying that she would deal with their release. They were not released, needless to say. Two were let go at 16:00 and two others, who said they’d been there five hours, were still there when we left. Later the “humanitarian” hotline called me back and said that in fact it was permissible to detain for up to four hours.As for the other detainees, at 15:45 we saw the commander checking their papers with the GSS. A few were released at once, most were still there when we left. Otherwise, all problems were dealt with: a 17-year-old, who said he was younger in order to go through with his mother, was detained after his ID details were checked, but when we intervened he was let through; a boy who had no permit to do so wanted to visit his sick grandfather in Ramallah: he was let through in the end.Huwwara SouthThe soldiers were ordered by their commander not to talk to us (they began to obey strictly only after two settler children arrived to “guard” them). A. himself (the commander) refused to talk or listen because of the Yediot Aharonot article for which he said we were responsible. However, he was efficient and did his work without making problems or inflicting any particular harassment; but, when any of his soldiers were out of line or there were humanitarian problems we were unable to help.Three elderly doctors, with all the required documents, living in Nablus, were detained by a soldier. We finally contacted R. [of the DCO] who promised to help. They were eventually released when GSS approval arrived and, at the same time, a DCO jeep came to solve the problem. A young man whose permit had been partially erased because it has been folded so often was detained by the soldier who didn’t like the look of the document Because of the breakdown in communications we were again unable to help. In other cases, where he became aware of the problems, A. placated his men and dealt with matters .At oAt one time there were 25 detainees, the first released an hour-and-a-half after we arrived._____________