Huwwara AM

HUWWARA, Tuesday 31 August 2004 AMObservers: Tal A., Dina A., Aharona M., Etti P. (reporting) colour=red>O7:50 — Jit junction There was an unannounced road-block here at which about 15 vehicles were stopped, including buses whose passengers were told to get off for checking. Huwwara South: Tal and Etti 08.05 We found six detainees who'd been waiting for three hours, since 05:00, in the detainees' shelter [detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 or 35 who have no passage permits; their ID details are phoned through to the General Security Services (GSS, also known as the Shabak or the Shin Bet, the Hebrew acronym for the GSS) for checking against a central list of security suspects, and the answers are then relayed back to the checkpoints. This cumbersome process can take considerable time, and that can be prolonged even more if the soldiers wait to accumulate a batch of ID cards before passing them on to the GSS , or if they behave in a similarly tardy manner at the end of the process, waiting until they have a batch of GSS clearances before they release individual detainees. Meanwhile, the detainees are virtually prisoners at the checkpoint where the soldiers retain the ID cards until the entire process is completed]. The checkpoint commander, T., explained that there were problems in communications with the GSS. Among the detainees was a young man, with a pile of medical test results, who, according to his elderly father, had an appointment for surgery. T. said that after checking he could enter Nablus. The soldiers carried out the most meticulously thorough check of a porter carrying packages for a messenger service from Jerusalem. Even the smallest package was opened as if it contained at least an atom bomb. Nobody knew why the check was so strict.08:25 — Now there were 12 detainees, and there'd been no releases. The driver of a refrigeration truck with a permit up to today, found his vehicle with a smashed front window and four slashed tires after leaving it last night. T. said that the man had come at 20:00 yesterday and been advised to return, but he'd insisted on leaving the vehicle and going home to Nablus. It should be noted that the truck had been parked right under a light in the middle of the junction facing the watch tower. T. asked if we thought he'd done it and I said no, but the army was responsible for what had happened. T. was indifferent. I advised the driver to complain and give details. The driver tried to recruit help to inflate the tires but nobody would help and he eventually called a break-down truck. I told him to ask for receipts for all his expenses. Three European women from the World Council of Churches were waiting for checking. They told us that soon they would have people at the checkpoints!!09:00 — The line now numbered 50 people. The soldiers were shouting and inefficient and kept asking T. questions. But he also had to check cars and ambulances and special cases and communicate the detainees’ details for GSS checking. He was very quick, but he didn't delegate authority and couldn’t change the soldiers’ conduct and they didn’t always obey his instructions. A jeep arrived with our old acquaintance Lieutenant N. from the District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that handles civilian matters; it generally has representatives at the checkpoints, ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians] . T. asked him to help and he dealt with the line. I took N. over to the truck and he said: “You know who did it…and it wasn’t the soldiers!” I agreed that it was settlers but said that that didn’t absolve the army of responsibility. N. told the driver to go to the DCO to submit a complaint and said he might get his expenses back. I took the telephone number of the driver’s Hebrew-speaking friend so that we can follow up.09:30 — Some detainees were released, but there were 12 new ones. A US citizen with a Palestinian ID needed to renew it. He was left for checking because the soldier who checked him “felt like it.” There was another, older man with him, a lawyer who'd argued with the soldiers and this apparently had annoyed the soldier. T. supported the soldier although he obviously didn’t agree with him.All this time, settlers kept appearing in cars or on foot, spitting, cursing, gesturing obscenely. They brought drinks and sweets to the soldiers. A car full of ultra-orthodox settlers driving on the Israeli lane encountered a porter with a hand-cart who was being checked : although they could have easily driven by him on the wide road, they chose instead to simply block his way. After T. asked what the problem was, they eventually drove on.A family – Israeli woman married to a Palestine and living in Israel — wanted to enter Nablus for the first time in four years…she was surprised to see the checkpoint and discover that she needed a DCO permit.10:15—The number of detainees was now 16, including one with a swollen arm whose mother was waiting for him, and another with a kidney-stone attack – also accompanied by his mother and in great pain. Another older man with Israeli papers [which might make it impossible for him to enter Nablus] discovered that sometimes it’s better to be a Palestinian and was sent to the DCO. A woman had come to the checkpoint with a child and a young daughter who claimed to be 15. The daughter was not let through because the soldiers decided she was 18 and needed her own ID card. The check had shown that according to the addendum to the mother’s ID, the girl had a document in the name of Imen and, according to her birth date, she was 18. Fortunately, one of the women detainees spoke fluent English and explained to the woman what the problem was. It turned out that she had yet another addendum (she has a number of children) and this daughter appeared there, and was in fact 15. We persuaded T. to let her through.A Palestinian Water Authority vehicle was detained so that one of the passengers, a man with a French passport, could be checked. Some of the detainees were released, including the kidney-stone sufferer, but there were people who'd been waiting for two hours. The Machsomwatch observers on the other side said that they too had asked the DCO representative what was going on and had been told that there were communications problems. A young Italian who hadn't coordinated his visit with the appropriate authorities was sent to the DCO, as was a student who wanted to go from the American University to an-Najah University. A number of calls to the DCO were answered only reluctantly – it would be easier if they were to go there. The Israeli family whom we met up with later told us that there was a very long line and that they were there till evening. Huwwara North: Aharona and Dina 08:00—We arrived to find 13 detainees; we got no cooperation whatsoever from the soldiers.At 09:40, eight of the detainees were released. The DCO representative helped in a few cases: for example, there was a couple where the wife had a Jordanian passport , while the husband had Palestinian papers – they were passed through by A. after he'd talked to them. He dealt similarly with a family whose members had Israeli IDs and where the wife's father had died; they, too, were allowed through.Fierce arguments broke out between taxi and van drivers over the few passengers, all because there is no parking lot here as there is on the southern side. The same problem crops up at every shift.An elderly woman who said she was born in 1943 was detained. A. gave the child travelling with her, who was crying, a chocolate yoghurt, called 2nd Lieutenant D. over and they finally decided to let her through. A DCO representative and an officer would undoubtedly have been of help in the cases we encountered at Huwwara South.All in all, it was quite a difficult watch, with a great deal of injustice and suffering for the Palestinians because of the army’s insensitivity and indifferences, and the inflexible rules which only the DCO or officers can bend.