Za’atara, Huwwara, Beit Furik, Monday 16.1.06 PMObservers: Riva B., Macky S., Dafna P. (reporting)Guest: YankaleTranslation: Hanna K.13:20 Za’atara Junc.:The Military Policeman in the checking workstation report on the segregation situation: The inhabitants of Jenin and Tul Karem are not allowed to pass on from here southwards. The inhabitants of Nablus are allowed.Two cars are waiting to be checked.14:00 Huwwara CP :The number of people passing at the checkpoint is not very high, considering the time of the day. The checking is long and thorough, and everybody is forced to wait for a very long time, but the queues are not long – just because there are not many people.When we arrive at the checkpoint a woman, an inhabitant of Nablus addresses us (she is a worker of a humanitarian American organization for children). She went to visit her parents at Huwwara three days ago with an authorization to pass the checkpoint in her car, although the car itself had not authorization – and now the soldiers don’t let her return to her home in Nablus. She has been waiting for a long time helplessly, while her two children wait in the car. We contact A. from the Liaison Administration who suggests that the woman drive to the Liaison Administration to start the formal procedure of obtaining an authorization for the vehicle. Will this cause here to return today in her car to Nablus?A few minutes later the head of the Liaison Administration (Lieutenant P.) with two other Liaison Administration officers arrive. One of them is D. who immediately goes to take care of that woman. He listens to her and checks her papers, efficiently and level-headedly. The head of the Liaison Administration too arrives a few minutes later and wishes to clarify the problem. He gets the details from D. and on the spot authorizes the entry of the woman and the car. D. also asks the woman to get an authorization for the car.The head of the Liaison Administration also tells us that he is in the habit of “going out to the territory” once a week (why not more?), that he follows our reports, and that sometimes these are not accurate. He wishes to make it clear that not every time we think that there is not representative of the Liaison Administration at the checkpoint we are right, sometimes the representative is just on the other side of the checkpoint and we are unable to see him.The deputy company commander, A. arrives for a visit at the checkpoint, accompanied by two soldiers. They are organizing a tour for the representatives of a firm that will construct a protection against gunfire at the checkpoint.An old woman walking slowly with the help of a walking-stick wishes to pass the checkpoint by way of the road, without standing in the queue. She arrives at the soldier who checks the cars entering Nablus. He decides that she has to return and stand at the end of the queue. Without wasting time on explanations he just takes her papers away from her and signals her to come after him. She tails helplessly behind him and he leads her back in the direction of Nablus, straight to the end of the queue. The head of the Liaison Administration notices the episodes and gets annoyed. He goes up to the deputy company commander, describes the course of the events, and begs that this should not happen. The deputy company commander nods in agreement but does not pass the necessary message on to the punishing soldiers, and the old woman is still somewhere deep in the queue…The physical examination in two of the three checking stations at the checkpoint are carried out by Military Policewomen. Today the physical examination includes actual touching of the bodies of the checked people in the region of the belt and the trouser pockets. It is not at all clear whether the commanders paid any attention to the discomfort caused here to men, by the fact the women soldiers rummage their body.A woman who passed the checkpoint with her young son asks us to help her to locate the older son who is still by himself at the checkpoint. R., the checkpoint commander gives a simple answer based on a simple logic: “she waited for such a long time to pass through the checkpoint, let her wait a little bit more until the second son comes through”.15:00 -At the parking lot next to the fuel station there is a “suspect vehicle”/ A police car and a military jeep take car of it. From the jeep emerges P., a soldier who in the past served at the checkpoint itself and was transferred from there probably as a result of the complaints of MW. He shouts angrily at us: “Stop bothering me. You called me a Nazi”.16:00 Beit Furik:There are four soldiers at the checking stations and three at the vehicle station. Only one soldier checks the papers of the pedestrians, most of the time facing those leaving Nablus. He does not see those who wait at the turnstile to enter Nablus, unless he turns around by accident.Loud music is heard from the checking station. The songs change according to the preferences of the soldiers. Now it is Ehud Banay. Some of the soldiers sing or even dance to the sounds of the music. It seems they have forgotten what their task here is: at this checkpoint, where so few people usually pass at big intervals and nobody waits for more than a few minutes, today quite many people are waiting, forced to peep in desperation through the cracks of the turnstiles at the singing and dancing soldiers who ignore them.The checkpoint commander comes up to us immediately upon our arrivel with a glazed look and tells us that there is a problem with our standing at the checkpoint, and that he is responsible for our wellbeing. We innocently assume that he refers to the specific point which we have chosen, and that all he wishes is to define our limits, but it turns out that the very fact of our presence here is problematic according to him. He simply wants us to go away. Contrary to his recommendation we stay, and he simply ignores us.At the exit from Nablus more than ten vehicles are waiting. Their passage is carried out at an outrageous slowness. Some of the vehicles which stand in the queue despair and return to Nablus. All along this time two vehicles are waiting next to the checkpoint in order to enter Nablus. The driver of the first vehicle leans on the steering wheel in a a posture that spells despair. We approach him and he tells us that he has been waiting at the checkpoint for two hours! The vehicle behind him is a U.N. one which succeeded to bypass the long queue behind, and has been waiting “only” twenty five minutes. Behind them, in the taxi parking zone above, the queue continues. Only the first tow vehicles are allowed to stand next to the barrier. The drivers of the vehicles in the queue behind have been waiting for an hour each.The checkpoint commander explains that there aren’t enough soldiers to serve simultaneously at both lanes, and that he therefore does not let the vehicles entering Nablus pass, until he finishes taking care of the vehicles leaving Nablus – and those do not end… The soldiers are checking at such a slow pace that it seems intentional, and take long breaks to rest.We call A. from the Liaison Administration. According to him he knows about this problem. The checkpoint commander sees us phoning, and orders that the driver who has been waiting for two hours and the U.N. car shoult be allowed to pass. The queue of the vehicles leaving Nablus has shortened, as some vehicles have despaired and returned. Now there are six vehicles. The soldiers now find the time to eat, to the sounds of the music. All the people at the checkpoint wait patiently for them to finish eating.16:15 -At the village of Huwwara we meet B., who has an identity card whose last numbers, to his misfortune, are identical with those of one of the numbers in the “shortlist”. Each time he leaves Nablus he is detained for hours until his matter is clarified. The soldiers do not explain the mistake to him, but tell him the the Security Services are looking for him. But of course nobody of the Security Services ever comes and he is released after his matter is investigated. This has happened so many times lately that he has had enough of it and avoids entering Nablus. 16:40 Za’atara:There are no cars at the junction.