Huwwara Tapuach Junction, Sunday 31.12.06 PM Observers: Judit B., Hanna B., Galit G., Tal H, Naomi L. reportingOne guest from abroadThis day happens to join the major Moslem holiday Eid al Adha and New Year’s Eve of all the West Bank Christians and their guests, one day before the promised ‘lightened conditions’ were to go into effect. It also happened to be the 10th day of Tevet, marking the beginning of the Babylonian siege on Jerusalem in 558 B.C.E., a day of fasting for some of the soldiers serving at the checkpoints…Tapuach Junction CP:15:10 – 50 vehicles lined up coming from the west, over 70 vehicles waiting, coming from the north (from Nablus area headed south towards the Ramallah and Jerusalem area). Pouring rain, biting cold, soldiers exposed and processing cars at an exceedingly slow pace.Around 17:30, when we were still at Huwwara, we received word that the waiting lines in Tapuach Junction numbered over 100 vehicles. Upon our arrival we still counted about 50 cars coming in from the west. Many families with children and elderly returning from holiday visits with their families, waiting over an hour. The soldiers check them constantly but the bitter cold and incessant drizzle slows down the process, and in spite of all our calls to all the functions we could reach, no reinforcement arrives and no more checking lanes are opened.Over 80 cars waiting in the line arriving from Nablus. A man appeals to us for help, waiting over an hour and a half in his car with an ill child he is transporting.People have to use the chemical toilets at the CP. Checking is done in both lines, but in fact the cars are checked alternately, for all the soldiers are using only one single wanted name list. The MPwomen leave and soldiers replace them, one line is closed and all the cars try to squeeze into the only checking line left open. The soldiers walk all the way to the drivers and instruct them to move back and line up again.Soldiers read ID numbers into their communication set and wait for answers, the pace is nerve-wracking. When both lines operate again, one is taken up constantly with humanitarian service vehicles constantly arriving from the side, so the CP which could be processing 4 lanes simultaneously is actually only still checking a single lane. We called both Brigade HQ and the DCO hoping some reinforcement would be sent, or orders to lighten up and speed up the proceedings. When nothing happened, we called Member of Knesset Ran Cohen who called the Regional Commander’s office directly. A soldier driving off to bring the soldiers food asks us if we too would like to eat and drink something. When we left about 19:00, the line of cars coming from the west had shortened considerably, but those from Nablus still stretched as far as the eye could reach. Frozen and hopeless, realizing there was no one to talk to, we left for home.At Yitzhar Junction there was no CP.Huwara CP: Commander – B., DCO rep. – M. MP in command – E.The present battalion manning the Huwwara, Beit Furiq, El Bidan and Yitzhar has only been there for a week now. These men were manning the CPs in Hebron and Gaza earlier.15:30 – Freezing cold and incessant rain. We turned to the commander requesting a plank be placed across a dysfunctional turnstile so that people exiting would know in time not to run into it and get hit, as was constantly happening. He listened with a smirk and found this quite an amusing idea.The humanitarian line opened for 2 minutes, then closed again for 4. People standing in it getting thoroughly drenched. Occasionally a MPwoman would screech, but on the whole less yelling than usual. Many family members waiting for others among the concrete walls, every few minutes a soldier arrives and chases them out to wait in the detainees’ pen, further from the turnstiles. He leaves, they come back, and so ad infinitum.Mohammad the friendly coffee vendor comes to sell warm drinks to the people waiting in the pen. Eli, MP officer in charge, chases him away with a cold, tough stare.A young man asks us why the MPwoman insists on seeing the skin of his belly?A woman with a small child asks if we’ve heard about the ‘alleviations’ on the radio? Finally she asks with a bitter laugh what do we think would happen when soon the Arabs take over the CP.The humanitarian is constantly full to bursting, people are turned back and we have no way to find out why.16:00 – we ask the DCO rep. to inquire about a man whose two sons were brutally pushed back by one of the soldiers at the ‘humanitarian’ line. As a result of the DCO intervention, they were allowed to pass within a few minutes.The vehicle entry lane into Nablus opens and closes alternating, at times closed for over 15 minutes. Drivers complain they wait over half an hour and more and ask us to do something so soldiers would open the line.16:45 – time for the soldiers to break their fast, the lines are halted again.Exiting vehicle check is performed with relative efficiency, without the sniffer dogs and their humiliating ladies.MP E. halts the checks in order to ask one of us to move back one meter, although she only crossed the ‘white line’ about 20 cm. in order to observe the pair of soldiers roughing up their checks at the humanitarian line. The CP commander tells E. to let it go and not bother with her, but E. claims this is a ‘matter of principle’ and summons the civilian police. Upon arrival, the police officer takes the ID numbers of two of our shift members and their phone numbers, and after a short talk with him, he leaves the CP.17:00 – the “humanitarian” line is closed, ‘there are not enough soldiers’. Women and children wait in the rain and cold in front of a closed gate. Finally they join the crowded men’s lines. Pedestrians warn drivers not to head south through Tapuach Junction for the waiting line reaches all the way to Huwwara village.E. forces a private car and its driver back to Nablus after a long argument. Then he holds a conference with the CP commander and his soldiers, and the cars still wait in line. No alleviation of any kind is felt, nor any consideration of the tough weather conditions or the fact that this is a holiday. The pace of CP proceedings is set by the soldiers – cold, wet, slow and in no hurry to get anywhere.17:15 – the side line is opened and the stream of people rushes through. Then they have to stand around waiting again endlessly until their men relatives get out of their lines.17:30 – we left for Tapuach junction CP which was reported congested and impossibly slow.