Report of an incident : Machsomwatchers on their way back fromtheir vigil at Huwwara and Beit Iba Checkpoints, 7.9.04 PMObservers: Tami G., Natali M., Ela H., Fathia A., Nurit Sh., Racheli B.,Ada R. (reporting)Reports of the two CP shifts are submitted separately, the Beit Iba shift report by Ela, the Huwara report by Fathia.The present “short” report depicts an incident witnessed by the two groups on their way back home, at the “border crossing” in the Fruit Checkpoint near Qalqilya – the so-called barrier at the border entrance to the State of Israel, although the Green Line has thus been shifted eastward.We rode N.’s van as usual, but his son was driving. Approaching the CP at around 18:00, a tall, slim fellow stood there, sharp-featured, rimless glasses on his pointed nose, a huge light brown Kippah on his head, 4 Tzitziyot hanging from his trousers. He did not wear a helmet as prescribed, and as did all his mates. Perhaps he is not a soldier of this unit but rather a pretender who claimed false authority, but I don’t think so since the soldiers obeyed him. He seemed older than the other soldiers, perhaps a “seam line volunteer”.When we slowed down and the driver opened his window, instead of the habitual hand gesture signaling us to continue driving, the fellow stopped the car. He then cast a thorough look at the passengers and the two men sitting in front. Without being asked, and before we had a chance to say a word, N.’s son handed him his driver’s license. The guy saw the Arab names, looked at us, his eye rested on my Machsomwatch tag, and with the most charming smile I could muster, I asked if there was a problem. He answered me there wasn’t, and signaled us to proceed to the right. I asked what was there to the right, and he answered that was the way to go It later turned out of course to be a turnoff where only Palestinian drivers are checked and… as I found out from the drivers waiting in line, drivers who are Palestinian citizens of Israel crossing the line, and… us, for our political views as exhibited via our tags. All the while cars of Jewish settlers flew by without being stopped or checked anywhere. It took me a few minutes to understand that the instruction to proceed to the right was to lead us Leftie Jews to the “suspected” lineup with all the Palestinian citizens of Israel.Naturally any eventual attempt to link this to security matters could not hold water. The people in question are 7 women well past 40 (except for Natalie) and two men, one over 50, all of us Israeli citizens, the supreme race represented by the absolute majority. So what security check are we talking about? As I got the hang of things, I got off the car that stood waiting in line, and went back to speak to that settler-soldier-volunteer, to ask who the commander was, please. I was answered “over there” with a hand pointing in the general direction behind us. I asked where “over there”, answered with a fly-chasing gesture. I asked why he directed us to the suspected lineup, and became air. So I asked why he needed to use his uniform to apply his political views to us, and was not answered at all. I stepped back to the area indicated by the soldiers as the whereabouts of the commander, the general direction of the perpetrator that had just sent me to them. Note the distance, about half a kilometer. Now I discovered that our van had come through and reached the other side of the CP where it was detained, directed to the side, and the IDs of drivers and passengers all taken!! I told the soldiers they were not authorized to either detain nor check IDs – they are not policemen, and even policemen may see IDs but not detain ID holders, unless there is a reasonable suspicion that the ID holder committed a felony. They answered us that they had summoned the police and we must wait until they arrived. I answered this was not the case, they can detain us until the police arrive only in case we have committed a felony. I demanded to know what felony we had committed, and they could not say – for obviously we hadn’t. I repeated that we were driving on, so the soldier stood in front of the car and said, “I don’t know what’s legal, I have my orders to detain you”. N. was afraid to drive on (which is understandable). He dismounted and asked the soldier why we were being detained. The soldier had received some message in the meantime, so he suddenly answered he was not detaining us, I was the one keeping us there! This must have been after the soldier (who obviously did not want to do what he was told, namely give us a hard time) confirmed what I had said about the illegality of detaining us. He may have heard and definitely had seen me call someone closely tied to higher security echelons, and explain what was taking place. During my phone call the soldier spoke to N., and we drove on into the Promised Land.I am filing a complaint about this incident.