Huwwara North & South

Huwwara, Wednesday 23.2.05, PM We got to Huwwara at 4:30PM . At the Southern Checkpoint there were 2 detainees who had been there for 10 minutes. The line wasout side the turnstile with about 30 people. The traffic was moving. In the Northern Checkpoint things were moving along. The younger men went through the turnstiles and the women and older men were outside the covered area. The officer on duty was B. and the Matak Representative was O. There were a few detainees. One had been there for over an hour and was released very shortly after we came. The second one had been there for over 3 hours. The officer told us he was suspected of having a false ID. This was an example of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing. At some point, due to the sharp eye of Yeudit, it was discovered that the man's ID was waiting to be checked by the police and the police had already been at the checkpoint for over 45 minutes but they hadn't been notified. When the right hand discovered it's left hand the ID was handed over to the police and in 2 minutes the police okayed the ID and the man was released. He looked very upset at having been held up for so long for no good reason. While we were there were several more detainees. One man was held up because the soldier made a mistake in calculating his age. He was thought to be 25 when in fact he was older. The officer discovered this rather quickly and released him. A couple were held up because the wife had forgotten her ID at home. The Matak Representative O. was checking them out. He is very earnest in wanting to help so we felt we could leave it in his hands. We left at 5:30PM.