HUWWARA, Wednesday 19 May 2004 PM Observers: Dvorah and Ayelet; guests: Anat and Philip (photographers) colour=red>Summary: Aside from one difficult event and two slightly less difficult,and one “settler-terrorist” episode which was almost laughable – the Huwwara north andsouth checkpoints worked very well (if it is possible to give marks to thiswhole disgusting institution ).The army unit now manning the checkpoint has taken the trouble to “decorate” the whole installation with huge signs bearing its symbols etc., in addition to Israeli flags and posters from Jewish nationalist organizations, thus emphasizing the absurd and grotesque nature of the set-up here. But the soldiers actually functioned very well , and tried to be efficient and cooperative.Second Lt. Y. should be singled out for commendation: he was relaxedand pleasant, and displayed considerable good will. If there is such a thing anywhere in the world as”humanitarian occupation” , it was exemplified by this officer! S., from the District Coordinating Office (DCO) was also pleasant and helpful [the DCO is the section of the army that is concerned with civilian matters; it frequently has representatives at the checkpoints ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians]. 15:00 — Huwwara South There were nine vehicles waiting to go through during the first half-hour that we were there. Ten Palestinians were waiting in the line for older man and another 20 in the queue of younger men . And, as usual, the checkpoint offered them no table on which they could place the contents oftheir bags, so they had to use the filthy cement block behind which the soldiers stand. There was no water available..In the “pit” — the sunken area that is parallel with the road and the lines of those waiting to go through the checkpoint — there were five detainees, waiting there without any shade or water. Two of them told us that they had come back four-and-a-half hours ago from a visit to the DCO where they had failed to receive the permits for which they had applied. Now they were not being allowed to return home to Nablus, precisely because they lacked this permit! One of the two looked very young, perhaps 15 or 16, and quite apathetic, as though in shock. According to Sergeant M., they had been at the checkpoint no longer than 40 minutes, from the time that he had started his shift and detained them. To ask a rhetorical question: whom should we believe?At 15:20, the soldiers closed the checkpoint for some unknown reason. They released three of the detainees, but told them to get back in line until the checkpoint reopened. The two just mentioned were not released.At 15:30 the checkpoint opened again.A young man arrived equipped properly with an identity card and magnetic card [the latter, issued by the DCO, attests to some degree of security “reliability”]. Deeply upset, to the point of tears , he said that his 18-year-old wife from Jordan was alone at home in the nearby village with the baby, and that she had called him at work after the baby had fallen down the stairs. She didn’t know what to doand he must get home immediately . But , apparently because he was so upset and frightened, and was shouting , the soldiers wouldn’t let him through. He was hysterical, and obviously in terrible distress! We tried all we could to calm him down and, at the same time, to contact the DCO and talk to M…. After we had almost succeeded in calming him (he spoke Hebrew), we suggested sending an ambulance from Nablus which could help his wife at home. But this was totally unacceptable to him: he said he would not cooperate in any way with anyone else: he alone must get to his wife and help her because “that’s how we do things!”We succeeded in reaching the DCO. They interrogated him non-stop for 10 minutes, to demonstrate to the whole world that he was a liar, and, at the end of the interrogation, they “succeeded”: so , they denied him passage! At this point, the man totally lost control and we could no longer get him quiet. Meanwhile, we managed to get hold of the Physicians for Human Rights organization , but they said that they were too busy in Gaza, and all they could suggest was sending an ambulance from Nablus…The man raced back to the taxis after telling us that he would get home another way. Just then , we got an alternative suggestion from Daphne and I ran afterhim only to see him disappear into a taxi going to Nablus… The incident left a very bad taste in our mouths. We felt utterly helpless in the face of a system that is evil and cynical and deaf to any appeal for even a modicum of understanding. We felt even worse because we sensed that had he turned to us before he reached the soldiers at the checkpoint, we would probably have thought of a way of helping him before it all blew up into a big drama.Then there was the case of the young pregnant woman held up, standing, in front of the checkingstation for some 20 minutes; she cried and said that it was difficult for her to stand. They looked for a chair (I don’t know if they were serious or just laughing) but none was found. The two detainees from 11:00 were released at 16:30.At 16:00, a settler took up a position next to Dvorah alongside the checking station . The soldiers told him to make himself scarce (not the exact words that they used!) “What, she’s allowed here and I’m not?” he asked; and got the reply: “Yes, precisely, she’s allowed and you’re not!” Then he said, “If she stays, then I stay!” Dvorah immediately left and went to the north side of the checkpoint; but after a few minutes, he followed her there, too. Philip (the journalist) tried to get him into conversation, but he didn’t respond even when Philip photographed him close-up . He stood and watched for about 20 minutes from the side, didn’t get close to the soldiers and didn’t make contact with anyone; nor did anyone make contact with him. Afterwards, we saw him hitching a ride to the [Jewish Israeli] settlement of Har Bracha. 15:50 — Huwwara North There was a very minimal shade awning over the detainees’ area. There was no water — even thesoldiers’ tank was empty for some time. The other part of the awning covered the checking station…a good thing, in fact: soldiers who have some shade are more relaxed than those standing in the heat of the sun… There was a table opposite the checking position which wasn’t there last week.The 20 detainees included two small children and their father: the three- or four-year-old was deaf and dumb, and the family had been on the way back from the hospital in Nablus. According to S., the mother had been allowed to go through, but the father had been stopped [pending a security check] and preferred that the children be delayed with him to speed up his release. “Do you see how terror exploits children? Hah!”At 16:00, 15 of the detainees were released, including the father and the two children; 13 remained. There were about 40 people, plus one baby, in the pedestrian line. Passage through the checking positions was quick and efficient. Thanks to the fine cooperation and good -will of Y., we succeeded in lopping off 2 1/2 hours from the time it would have taken to release three taxis confiscated three days earlier.The question of the confiscated taxis: Let’s say that the taxi was confiscated at mid-day on 15 May and that the driver was told to come and reclaim it on 18 May. Exactly when on 18 May was, of course, not indicated. Let’s say that he arrived at noon on the appointed day and was told: “We don’t have time now. Wait until we close the checkpoint (theoretically at 18:00) and then you willget the keys.” If indeed the soldiers start to close the checkpoint at 18:00, which is unlikely since they generally start doing that only at 19:00, then he won’t get the keys before 19:30 or 20:00, because releasing a taxi is a complicated bureaucratic procedure. So now the driver has the keys, and the vehicle is “released”, but meanwhile night has fallen and he is forbidden to drive on the road…and he still must return the taxi to its owner and get home. So maybe he should just come tomorrow morning to release it? In which case, they will tell him: “Wait until we close the checkpoint…..”