Huwwara North & South

Huwwara, Tuesday PM, 22.2.05Observers: Horit P., Nurit S., Ella H. (reporting)The soldiers were from a Hesder Yeshivot unit, with the appropriate ideology. Nevertheless, they did a good job and demonstrated good will toward the Palestinians.Tapuah Junction: Roadblock. A long line of cars on their way to Huwwara. (14:15), and also those coming back (around 18:00).At Huwwara south the traffic was light. Occasionally a line formed of about 20-30 people, but they also passed through quickly. Women and elderly people passed without inspection. No detainees most of the time. When they did detain someone (younger than 25, without a permit, or a name on their list), they called a number of times to expedite the treatment, and, indeed, the longest delay was about half an hour, usually less. A tourist with an American passport was not allowed to cross, and they tried to call the DCO (no answer), and explained to him politely the rules of the passage. In the end, I got in touch with Shiran, and she explained that tourists need to send a fax to the General Command of the area, to write down the time of entrance required, and the goal of the visit, and the officer generally allows it. This explanation was of no use to the present tourist, who had to return on his tracks.Ambulances went through quickly.Two Palestinians from the Doctors without Borders organization complained to the checkpoint commander that a soldier spit at them after they passed through. The commander reprimanded the soldier, who try to make excuses for his behavior as caused by "an excess of liquids", but in the end he blamed the 2 Palestinians for being anti-Semites. The same soldier complained to us that we don't care about the soldiers, unlike the "Blue and White" women, who come with Bisli and Bamba...This unit is leaving the checkpoint, and they were taking going away pictures...We waited there for our colleagues from the northern checkpiont who were taking care of more serious matters until about 18:00.Huwwara northObservers: Pithiah A., Lee A., Tami G. (reporting)The soldiers finishing their checkpoint period of duty are busier with taking souvenir photos of themselves and their friends than with taking care of the people who were standing in lines. When we mentioned this to the checkpoint commander, second lieutenant A., he said "At least they aren't taking pictures of dead bodies."Because of this, and in spite of the large number of soldiers at the checkpoint, around ten, the portable computers, the x-ray truck, the passage was going very slowly.When we arrived, at 14:30, we found a Palestinian imprisoned in the "cell". He said that he had come to get his wife who was returning from Nablus. He said that he was beaten by the checkpoint commander. Lieutenant A. denies this and says that his friend, who was with him in the car, ran away. The "cell" is his punishment. A. claims that he doesn't need the permission of the brigade commander. Only the permissions of the battalion commander. In fact, according to him, he only has to inform the battalion commander. We called Ra'ad at the DCO, and then Oleg appeared, its representative at the checkpoint, who did free the prisoner, but only after a wait of 2 hours, which the commander had determined. Oleg claims, as usual, that he has no authority to go against the orders of the checkpoint commander.The detention shed fills up all the time. Second Lieutenant A. organizes groups to be taken out of the line behind the turnstiles in order to detain them in the shed and turn them over to the GSS for inspection. When we ask why, he answers that there are a lot of warnings today. The inspection of the groups of detainees takes a considerable time. The soldier with the walkie-talkie doesn't exactly hurry up with the list of names. Our attempts to speed up the inspection are not effective. From 15:30 until we leave, at 18:00, Ra'ad's telephone at the DCO does not answer. Oleg's assistance doesn't accomplish much either.Second Lieutenant A. has his own priorities, among which are, as we mentioned, souvenir photos with his group, and "educational" talks with 2 boys with cargo wagons who are going back and forth between the north and south checkpoints, to whom he dedicates a lot of time. Afterward, he stops 4 women students who, he says, tried to skip out of line. They are released pretty quickly. The men are detained for about 2 hours. Among them is someone who doesn't have an ID, only a copy of it. The commander is suspicious about its authenticity, the number written on it does not appear on his computer. After Oleg leaves the checkpoint, at 17:00, the commander tells us that he has called the police. We decided to wait until their arrival. When we understood, after an hour, that the police was not going to come, we strongly suggested that the commander release the man. The soldier with the walkie-talkie continued to interrogate him, over and over, what was his father's name and what was the name of his father's father, and passed the information along. Since this man did not have a cellular phone, we had no way of finding out when he was eventually released. We left quite discouraged.