Nablus area checkpoints,road-blocks

Nablus Area Checkpoints , Saturday 18 December 2004 AMObservers: a large group visited all the Nablus checkpoints: Nurit L., Tammy G., Amalia V., Rachel A., Vicky B., Naomi R., Varda G., Hava H., Solli P., Vivi Ts. (reporting) colour = red> SummaryThere was a more relaxed atmosphere at all the checkpoints, particularly at Huwwara, by contrast with the checkpoints on Road 60, south of Nablus. Huwwara South There was a better atmosphere here: the checkpoint was manned by military police and paratroopers. The turnstiles were not working and there was lively pedestrian traffic. Most of the time weapons were not aimed at the Palestinians. A soldier was reprimanded for not arriving quickly enough to check a car. Bags and papers were checked only randomly. At the beginning of the watch, young men who were detained were released rapidly, but by 10:00 detainees were waiting more than an hour ( on the coldest day in the past fifty years!). Lowering the age limit has helped the 25-30-year-olds. [Detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 or 35 who have no passage permits; recently, young women, too, have been detained, and there have been relaxations in the age limits . 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]. Huwwara North There were no lines, few pedestrians and few vehicles. Beit FurikThe checkpoint was manned by reservists. Residents of Salem and Azmut were able to reach Nablus without going through the checkpoint, but they had to pass through Beit Furik in order to cross the road to the neighbouring villages beyond Road 60 at the Huwwara-Eilon Moreh section which is totally prohibited to Palestinians. Passage was rapid and there were no lines. SarraHere we saw two soldiers checking 10 passengers who'd been taken off a pickup truck. Their documents would certainly be checked again before they entered Nablus. The soldiers said about 250 people went through this checkpoint every day: the only reason for its existence is to prevent villagers from Sarra, Til and Burin from using Roads 60 and 55 on their way to Beit Iba, since these routes pass close by the Israeli settlement of Kedumim. A truck was pumping water to the nearby villages. Passage procedures were similar to those at the other Nablus checkpoints. Beit IbaThe new age restrictions, 14-25 for men – applied here as well. Traffic moved well and there were no lines. There was one detainee, and one confiscated taxi. We left quickly because of the intense cold. Unannounced Road-Blocks At Tapuah junction , 27 vehicles stood waiting for a slow check; further south, near Al-Luban Ash-Sharqiya, there was a line of 40 vehicles, including packed buses, at a road-block there . Checking was very slow but as soon as we arrived the soldiers announced that the road-block would be removed in another two minutes. It had been set up at 09:00 and people had been waiting an hour-and-a-half. Immediately afterwards, a new unannounced road-block went up further south at Halamish junction, before the turnoff to Ramallah. A few cars were checked randomly, but traffic was slow because of all the barriers which hampered driving. We met a representative of the Palestinian press agency who told us that it had taken him three hours to travel from Tulkarm through three checkpoints.