Tarqumiya

Tarqumiya Sunday afternoon, January 30, 2005Watchers: Linda G. and Anat S. (reporting)We arrived at the checkpoint at just before 4pm.We stood at the CP alongside the line of laborers waiting to pass through. From talking to the laborers we understood that there had been some kind of delay in the morning between the hours of 5:30 to past 7:00. At first we were told that there had been some kind of delay / possible temporary checkpoint in the Idna vicinity. We asked the CP commander (an older Border Policeman whom Linda had not seen at the CP since last year) if there was a reason for the delay in the morning, and he said no. He seemed most unwilling to talk to us.Anat went to speak to the representative of the DCO (District Coordinating Office; the IDF's Civil Administration office responsible for issuing passage permits) that was at the CP (a soldier who impressed us with his attitude to the CP situation and the respect with which he treated the Palestinians) to ask him if he had heard anything about the morning’s delay.In the interim Linda began to get more information from the Palestinians passing through. Incident: One of them told her that Y', a friend of his, had been taken out of the line and beaten up by a Border Policeman by the name of H' (a Druse). Y' had been hit in the face and in the eye and he was taken away by ambulance to Ashkelon – later possibly he was taken to hospital in Jerusalem, according to his friend’s account. From talking to more of the Palestinians in the line who had observed the incident, it appears that the injured Palestinian had been complaining about the long delay and that is why he had been singled out by the BP officer.When we asked the DCO representative about this incident -- he said he knew nothing about it, but would investigate.We called the DCO office and asked them to investigate.Note:The Palestinians kept saying to us that if there had been a Machsomwatch shift in the morning, this would never have happened.We left the checkpoint at just before 18:00.