Huwwarra, Za’arta, Beit Furik, 13.2.06, Monday PMObservers: Macky S. Zahava G. Daphna P. (reporting)Natanya translating.The soldiers at Hawarra and Beit Furik do not allow us to get to the checkpoint itself but only to the brink…”orders of the brigade’….and in that way they prevent us from being witness to most of what is happening there. The fact that we honored the orders of the commander of the checkpoint at Beit Furik does not stop him from libeling us to the police. At Zaarta a dog was sent to check the bus and to sniff at the belongings of the passengers and as a dessert also pissed in the bus…a nice memento. At Hwarra two shepherds are brought in from somewhere to the hut of the wanted men. They are twisting in pain from having been found for hours by the handcuffs and the flannel n their eyes. The soldiers desribe this as a “security affair of the highest importance.” A further investigation proves that this is another case where the army has arrested innocent shepherds to stop them herding their sheep. After seven and a half hours in this situation they are freed to go home.Za’atara 12.45 3 cars and a bus in the lane. The passengers have been taken off the vehicle and are now waiting for the bus to be inspected by the dog and its trainer. The dog pushes his nose into each bag which is placed on the floor. This takes about 20 minutes in all while the passengers watch in disgust knowing that they will have to clean all their belongings afterwards. When they are allowed to get into the bus again they find a charming souvenir from the dog…..urine.There are 6 cars coming from the north and at the crossroads 3 empty Israeli buses wait.13.05 -A rolling checkpoint (which is no longer so surprising) at the crossroads of Yizhar with 13 cars in line.Beit Furik.13.15 The commander looks at us with a grim face and this is an “ closed army area.”, that we are not allowed to enter and that we are bothering him. We demand to see the order which closes the area to citizens but he has no such thing. He makes up an answer.” This is the commander’s order.” Little movement at the checkpoint and no detainees. Seeing that this is so and knowing with what ease the soldiers enjoying summonsing the police we accept his orders. We phone G. at the brigade to check this oarder out but at no time are we able to contact him.Just before we turn to go back to the car an army vehicle and a policewoman call us to come to them. He scolds us because he says that the commander claimed that we had interfered with him and that we had brought “natives” with us. We of course do not know what he is talking about but this scenario is not new, the soldiers make up their lying stories about our behavior and it is worrying.Hawarra. 13.50 On the way from Beit Furik we count 15 cars waiting to leave Nablus. We took note of a bus at the back of the line…it took an hour and 15 minutes to pass at 15.40.14.15 -A family with a month old baby returning from a visit to the doctor say that they waited two hours at the checkpoint.A. the commander of the checkpoint shouts at us in the area behind where the ids are checked .”There is an order from the brigade commander that you are not to pass this line.” The checkpoint is very crowded. The bodychecks are carried out fairly quickly but roughly. One of the checkers literally bangs on the bodies of those he is checking. The soldier guarding him turns the carousels brutally each time that the line progresses. The military policewoman at checkpoint for ids speaks in shouts to the people. The men who exit say they have been waiting from one hour to one and a half.15.00 -A lorry downloads high cement barriers and puts them as a high fence between the two lanes on the road so as to divide the road to Har Bracha and that leading to the checkpoint. 2 engineering soldiers who have come to do this use an interval in the work to help at the checkpoint. A. the police commander uses this reinforcement by asking them to guard an imaginary line and they do so with the help of loud screams of “Woah, woah” directed at the people. The commander does not bother to teach them anything about the handling of a checkpoint, for example that they are not supposed to smoke while on duty. But he does teach them the most important thing of all….not to speak to the women of Machsomwatch.15.3 – A young man is detained and his id taken from him. It seems that as with everyone else he had been told to take off his belt but the soldier checking him had confiscated it. When he complained to the commander he was immediately detained and sent to the enclosure without the commander checking on what had happened. We phone A. of the DCO and after 15 minutes with A.’s intervention he receives his belt and is sent on his way. The claim is that his belt looked like army issue. That was enough for the soldier to confiscate it.16.00 -2 young men handcuffed and blindfolded are brought in from somewhere in a very aggressive way to the enclosure. The soldiers treat them like ticking bombs. They keep them quiet with shouts and refuse to allow them to talk to one another. The DCO representative who has now arrived also says that this is a “security matter”. Even the soldiers from the engineering corps knowingly say “this is a matter for the secret service” and “they were caught in an area where they had no right to be.” We insist on being allowed to speak to them and give them water. Their clothes are dusty and scraped. The one speaks Hebrew and says that they were kept bound from the early hours of the morning at Har Bracha, they are in great pain from the handcuffs. Their hands are blue and the flannel blindfolding them presses on their eyes. It takes 3 phone calls to Asaf before at 16.30 the commander loosens the handcuffs on their purple hands. At the same time one of the soldiers from the engineering corps volunteers to come over to them each time and to shout violently “shut up, shut up” each time one of them dares to mumble something. 16.30 -A sack full of parcels and letters being sent to Nablus from Israel is very carefully checked by the solider stabbing into the sacks with a big knife and snuffling around.17.00 -We leave the checkpoint but take the names of the shepherds and their phone numbers. At 17.30 they are sent home.Later that night one of them phones Daphna and asks her to get him permission from the army to take his sheep to pasture. This is the fifth time that the army has acted in this way with them. Each time they are kept bound for hours and theirflocks disperse in all directions ruining the olive orchards in the area. They are hopeless and cannot buy food for the flock and so they have to pasture them. But in every place where they go they are caught and punished.Za’atara CP 17.10 3 cars at the Yizhar crossroads.Za’atara crossroads. 17.15 about 12 cars in each direction.