Huwwara South

HUWWARA SOUTH, Sunday 28 November 2004 AM Observers: Shirili P., Lee K., Shelly M. (reporting) colour=red>07:50 – On the way to the checkpoint we encountered an unannounced checkpoint at Tapuah junction. There was a long line of vehicles behind the soldiers and some 70 people in line. The improvised checkpoint was manned by four soldiers. We saw no detainees. Since we were short of time, we didn’t stop.08:00 – There was also an unannounced checkpoint at Yitzhar junction where some 20 people waited to be checked and 50 vehicles, too, waited on line behind the two soldiers who had blocked the road.08:10 –There was considerable crowding at Huwwara in the "pens" behind the turnstiles [these are not simple turnstiles such as one finds in a subway station, but high , revolving gates made of steel bars: each segment is barely large enough to admit one average-sized person; there is virtually no room to spare for anything that person may be carrying , whether a child or a parcel; passage for pregnant women or for the elderly is extremely difficult and frightening]. About 150 people were trying to go through and the line was moving slowly. In the detainees’ area were five students and one woman. All their ID numbers had been sent off for checking. The detainees said they’ve been waiting for an hour, the soldiers said it was only 20 minutes. The woman had been detained because the soldiers had found a Hamas scarf with a picture of a Kalashnikov in her bag. The scarf was confiscated and was not returned when she was released with the others at 08:30. A new detainee arrived and was released after 10 minutes. [Detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 or 35 who have no passage permits; recently, young women, too, have been detained. The detainees' 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 was manned by four soldiers under the command of Y. They were angry and hurt. All of them had read an article by [a well-known Israeli columnist] Yonatan Gefen, on Friday, and especially the comments made by [Machsomwatch's] Aya K. Y. said he couldn’t understand why she'd made such an attack on the soldiers, who were only cogs in the wheel, rather than blaming those responsible. We spent the first 15 minutes in a discussion with him and only after he'd calmed down could work begin. He was reasonable and coherent, courteous, restrained his men and responded to all our requests.08:35 –The soldiers started up a new line for women.08:45 – Women were trapped in the "pen" behind the turnstile. One of the soldiers went to release them – by dint of shouting at them:"Get back there!" "Move to the right!" Generally speaking, the checkpoint was disorderly and the problems raised by the iron turnstiles forced one of the soldiers to halt the checks and stand beside the turnstile to let the women through. As the confusion increased, the shouts got louder, but matters improved greatly when the soldiers’ breakfast arrived.09:10 – One of the soldiers shouted at a man of about 30: "I told you yesterday to go to the DCO and you didn’t, did you? So now you can stand here and think about it!" After we interceded, the man was released. The same soldier later punished another man who'd tried to sidestep the line: but when he saw our reaction, he returned the man’s ID card to him. There were no more detainees until the end of our watch.09:20 – The checkpoint was emptying out. There were about 50 people in the "pens" waiting to pass through and about 15 women were going through quickly in a separate line.We left the checkpoint at 10:30 when there were about 50 people in line and no detainees.10:40 –We came to an unannounced checkpoint at the Gilad Farm [an Israeli settlement]. There was a long line of cars on both sides.10:45 –There was another unannounced checkpoint at Jit junction with long lines of cars on both sides.