Tyassir, Hamra, Wednesday 3.8.05 PM Observers: Tal H., Galit G., Dafna B. (reporting)Guest and photographer: Eli H. Summary: a banal vigil with no special events, the shameful routine of (Palestinians’) needing the approval of an 18-year old to approach, to speak, pass, live… Just because at this point in time, history has placed the power in his hands. Passage is relatively swift, seemingly due to our presence. The two checkpoints, Tyassir and Hamra, appear in sharp contrast to the checkpoints more familiar to us around Nablus and Jerusalem: Very sparse vehicle traffic, no pedestrians. Against the strikingly beautiful landscape and pastoral stillness all around, and even more in view of the relaxed soldiers without the helmets and the typical struts and grunts familiar to us otherwise, the inherent tyranny here is all the more obvious: any vehicle that arrives and has to be checked, is forced to wait – for no apparent “reason”. It just stands and stands there, far from the checking post, even if it is the only vehicle there!!! Tyassir 14:00 – as we arrived, two cars were waiting, coming from Tyassir. 4 soldiers at the CP. Later there would only be two present. Nice to see them not wearing helmets…A soldier approaches us and announces that we are not allowed to photograph there – it’s a military zone. We insisted we are allowed, and that he should check with his superiors. He said he did, and that it’s prohibited, and if we photograph he will lodge a complaint. We told him to go ahead and lodge. A moment later an officer came and said we could photograph, but not the soldiers themselves. We agreed. All that time, the cars waiting were not checked. 14:10 – Two soldiers approach the 1st car and wave the woman and boys standing by it to move further to the side. Every Palestinian car nearing the CP must wait about100 meters away, behind the concrete blocks, until waved to approach by the soldier. It then nears to about 10 meters’ distance, stops at the side, off the asphalt, the passengers get out and form a line away from the road. The driver is expected to shut off the engine (some of them forgot and were sent back to do so), and approach the soldier with the IDs and permits of all the passengers, hand them and then ceremoniously step back four paces and wait. Literally pace backwards, which necessarily forces the Palestinians to walk back in a sort of a semi-bow.The soldier checks the IDs, returns them, then everyone gets back in the vehicle and proceed. The check is very rapid. Checking trucks takes longer (their content is checked as well).All the people who went through told us they usually wait much longer (an hour or two) and that today’s was so rapid “because you are here”. Many thank us, and it’s quite embarrassing. We are ashamed of this entire humiliating procedure, and they thank us….Most of the traffic is from the Jordan Valley towards Tyassir, in service passenger vans, open trucks and buses. The buses carry day workers back from Jericho, and the rest, from the J.V. settlements. They told us that this morning, just like that, a redheaded soldier prevented one of the workers who had no permit, to come through. Try as he might, the worker could not convince him and had to go back home, not bringing back even the pittance he would have earned.An Israeli car arrives, stopping 200 m. from the CP. The soldiers leave the CP and saunter down to meet it (2 Palestinian cars are kept waiting in the meantime). They chat, it’s a couple. The man apparently served here in the army 16 years ago and has brought his bride to show her the view. A romantic moment at the CP (the soldiers merrily told us this on their way back, finally, to their post). Passengers of a bus from Jericho that has stopped on its way for others boarding at the Beduin hamlets on the way, tell us that the Beduins have a really hard time. They do not always have the special permit required, and then elderly people, sick women etc. are forced to disembark and not allowed to proceed. Today there was no special case of that nature (perhaps because of our presence?) 14:45 – a jeep full of officers arrives and there are many soldiers at the CP.Two cars from Tyassir have been waiting for over 20 minutes but no one gives them the time of day. We request the soldiers to do so and they tell us they are now briefing a new company, but in spite of the risks involved (?)they will check them now.An Israeli vehicle lets out 10 workers who pass through the CP one by one at the soldier’s beckoning. Each carries a heavy sack on his shoulder, some also carrying bit bags. The uphill stretch, 300 m. in the sweltering heat, with their heavy burden, is obviously strenuous.Unlike on previous occasions, the soldiers manage to check both directions simultaneously, an obvious complication for merely 2 soldiers. 15:00 – checking halts. The one soldier is eating. To our question why the other doesn’t continue, we hear that “That one – on the top of the hill – is covering me, and I cover him, and he’s eating.” A real human food chain, while the Palestinians are drying up inside their vehicles. We suggested that someone from the base (10 meters away) relieve them while they eat, for the people frying inside the buses and cars shouldn’t be made to suffer like this. This didn’t really concern the soldiers…One of the passengers awaiting check told us that a few days ago he was handcuffed and sat by the CP in this state until midnight. R., our acquaintance of a previous visit, asks us to look into the subject of permits for people living in Tyassir but possessing land on the other side of the CP, who don’t manage to till it.I asked him to give me the names of these people (by phone) and I’ll see what we can do. Hamra 16:30 – very sparse traffic. Passage is relatively swift, no lengthy detentions.The soldiers try to distance us from the CP but we stay near them. The photographer remains further off in order not to antagonize them (especially the sun- scorched redhead). Yaron, the Battalion Commander arrives. He’d met with Hannah B. and is all smiles and cordiality. From then on the soldiers no longer pester us and we even manage to approach the other side of the CP. A vehicle with 6 passengers is being held up there: 2 foreign passport holders from France and Brazil, and 4 local Palestinians, one of them 77-years old who’d forgotten his ID at home, others without special permit. They wish to go to Ramallah and have been stopped at Huwara, so they came here. The guests are allowed through and the others are not, after some phone checks. Before we even began to try and help, they all boarded their car again and drove back. Anyway, it doesn’t seem we’d have succeeded.