BEIT IBA, HUWWARA, Monday 3 May 2004 PMObservers: Ruthi K., Maki, Miri K., Noya A., Maya K. (reporting) colour=red>SummaryThere was a “closure” here today, or, as we learned today at Beit Iba, a damming [there is a play on words here: on the Hebrew words seger , meaning closure, and seher , meaning dam] , so that only “humanitarian” cases were allowed through the checkpoint. We were also told that this had been further narrowed to only extreme “humanitarian” cases , i.e. only the injured in ambulances and not the sick! Nonetheless, in Beit Iba, where we received the explanation, all the ambulances went through. In Huwwara the soldiers were tougher. So: few people, particularly in Beit Iba, while in Huwwara the main activity was dealing with humanitarian cases. We split into two groups13:30 — Qalqiliya When we arrived, there was a line of about 15 cars on their way out. The delay was caused by a taxi being very meticulously checked by two soldiers. All the passengers had been told to get out, and the driver explained that he hadn’t halted at (or hadn’t seen) the red plastic barrier on the road. He had thus driven beyond it and now the soldier was punishing him. After taking the passengers out and checking the inside of the cab, the soldier asked the driver to dismantle the engine. A noisy argument ensued. The driver brought a spanner and opened some part of the engine, closed it again and was allowed to continue on his way. When we asked about this strange procedure, the soldier told us not to interfere with his work. After this saga, the other cars went through rapidly. Several were told to halt for a random check but were immediately allowed to leave.A private vehicle with an Israeli licence plate wanted to enter Qalqiliya but was not allowed to. A woman passenger appealed to us: she was from Taibeh, had only one leg, and wanted to visit her daughter in Qalqiliya . While we were talking, her other daughter, an Israeli student who was the driver of the car, had already managed to arrange entry for them.The Zer farm checkpointWhen we arrived, a bus from Jenin was on its way to Ramallah. The passengers were taken off, their papers were checked, and in the end the bus was sent back to Jenin after having been checked at three previous checkpoints.Five young men were sitting by the road , one of them, above the “problematic” age [Palestinian males aged between 16 and 35 have great difficulty in moving freely around the Occupied Territories even if they are in possession of all the required permits], sitting there because he didn’t want to leave his young nephew alone. Their papers had been taken for checking an hour ago. They wanted to go north ( to Jenin and Tubas). When we passed by two or three hours later, they were no longer there.Jitt junction We found a detained taxi and a detained private car here. The taxi-driver, from Qabatiya, had driven south on Road 60 which is open only to the privileged [i.e. it is open only to Israelis and is closed to Palestinians]. He claimed that he didn’t often travel there and didn’t know about the ban. He said he had been waiting since 06:00, but the soldiers said he had been there only from 10:00 (that means – at least four hours). The car driver was from Ramallah, and, at the junction, he had turned from Road 55 onto the forbidden Road 60 and been arrested as he made the turn. We asked the soldiers to release him, since he’d scarcely been on the road. We talked to the army’s “humanitarian” hotline, where they promised nothing and did nothing. From a phone conversation later that night we discovered that the car driver had been released after about an hour, but the taxi had been confiscated for four days at [the police station of] Shavei Shomron.Five people were waiting on one side for the check. We asked for water for them. The soldiers had none so we gave them ours. Perhaps we should suggest to the authorities that if some roads are banned to a certain population, there should be proper signposting? The explanation that “everyone knows” is unsatisfactory.Beit Iba Today, as noted above, there was a “damming” in place here. For most of the time we were there scarcely anyone went into Nablus and only a trickle came out, or tried to. At any given time there were a few detainees waiting, including a group of women with small children: a girl from Nablus, with a mother and two aunts and their children from Jenin who all wanted to visit her In the end, after the check,each went her own way (the first back to Nablus, the rest to Jenin).We tried hard to help a student who wanted to return from Nablus to his home in Deir Sharaf ( a stones-throw from the checkpoint). He had been detained for a long time and our appeals to the “humanitarian” hotline did not help. In the end he went through,but many others living in the vicinity (Qusin, Burka) were forced to turn back.We succeeded in helping a man with back problems, who was dragging his leg and had a medical certificate, to get home.We tried to help a young man with a nursing certificate (auxiliary medical personnel). The soldiers claimed that the document was forged and S. from the District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that deals with civilian matters] claimed that the young man had admitted to him that he wasn’t working as a nurse. S. added that even UNWRA personnel wanted to impose some sanctions on Nablus for forging UNWRA documents.As usual at Beit Iba, N. was very helpful, attentive and ready to exercise judgment, even though the results were meagre. S., another soldier, was rough and shouted at the passersby even about trivial matters such as checking briefcases and purses.HuwwaraHere too there was complete closure. Nobody moved in and out except for acute “humanitarian” cases. Palestinians continued to wait at the two checkpoints even after being refused, in the hope that their luck might change. Among the cases: a diabetic with a letter declaring that she needs treatment. She was refused and we contacted I. from the Physicians for Human Rights organization (PHR). Even so, she was not allowed through until, suddenly, the checkpoint was opened for women over 40. A little boy needing dialysis went through with his mother thanks to our pleas. Two children with Thalassemia had gone through to Nablus with their father in the morning for treatment and were returning home; But a mother with two children suffering from the same condition were not allowed back home.An elderly man treated for kidney stones was not allowed through to return home.A man recovering from open heart surgery was allowed home only after we intervened.An old man was not allowed back home after undergoing eye surgery. When we looked later, he had disappeared.The wife of a couple from Nablus had a different address in her ID card. She was not allowed back into Nablus and both turned back.An ambulance with medicines was not allowed to pass at first when the soldiers claimed that the ambulance crew were trafficking in medical drugs; it went through later following our pleading. At the northern checkpoint, a detainee had been sitting with his wife beside him from 06:00. The soldiers claimed that he had hit a soldier, and was under arrest and awaiting the arrival of the [Israeli General Security Services] Shin Bet. They explained that they would release him at dark (in other words the Shin Bet story was an invention).The commander of the northern checkpoint was very helpful, contacted his superiors on every issue but did not exercise judgment of his own. The soldiers were very tough, and two soldiers at the northern checkpoint spoke very offensively to the Palestinians.