Huwwara South & North

Huwwara, Sunday 27.02.05, PMObservers: Noa P., Naomi L. (reporting)13:13 – Sarra checkpoint: Nobody around. 3 reserve soldiers are surprised by our arrival. One ssays, "Everything is peaceful and quiet, they have a good life here." We asked what happened to the truck drivers whose permits were taken from them a month ago. "Only those who appear on the list pass through." Since R' was on vacation, we will clarify this issue tomorrow.Huwwara South13:30 – Also here the checkpoint was almost empty, a few people passing through without any inspections. Later, when the traffic picks up, they will be sent through the turnstiles which have been fixed, and their documents will be checked. The inspection of vehicles is done relatively quickly. The sewage pipe from the lavatories is still wide open and the smell effects everyone who is on their way to the taxis. No detainees.Huwwara NorthNew soldiers at the checkpoint, and their flags are blowing in the spring breeze. About 100 people are crowded next to the turnstiles. The former line of turnstiles, from the direction of Nablus, were put back, and all of the shoving and crowding is again removed from the vision and hearing of the soldiers doing the inspection. The question might be asked how they slept quietly when there was only one row of turnstiles, how was it secure during the period the turnstiles had disappeared? Now is it more secure? Can we relax? About half of those waiting are women, some pregnant, or with babies and small children. Every revolution of the turnstile makes a screeching noise which adds to the nightmarish atmosphere. At the inspection stations there are now additional sandbags on top, and the soldiers are completely hidden behind them. Only 3 stations are manned, in spite of the crowding and the large number of soldiers around the checkpoint. The inspections, especially of the women, are done very slowly. We ask them to speed it up and the officer requests that we do not interfere. Only we hear the crying of the infants.13:47 – A female soldier joins the inspection team, but the electric buttons are not working and the inspection returns to the former number of only 3 stations. At the detention shed there is one person, who says he has been ther since 10 AM. He is quite "wanted" and soon they will come to take him away. When we left, at 17:00, he was still very "wanted" and they will come to take him away soon. He didn't want our help so we don't know what happened to him. We called the army hotline to complain about the length of time he was detained, without food or drink, but they also didn't get back to us with any satisfactory answer.14:00 – A mother and son, whose permit lapsed 5 days ago; the officer denies him passage and sends him back to Nablus. He lives in Yasuf, next to Tulkarm, and they are now returning home. The officer is not willing to listen and Ra'ad does not answer telephone calls today. Suddenly a representative of the DCO arrives, A., who sends them on their way after a short discussion.We ask the soldier to let a woman through whose baby is screaming, "But she is in back", he says. This position of the inspection station, far away from the people, behind sandbags, cuts them off from the reality of the checkpoint. They only see what is in front of them, and even then only the document and what is on the computer. A nurse accompanied by 2 small children arrives from the side of the inspection station and gives her document. The female soldier is not willing to check her, because she didn't stand in line. The woman turns to another soldier and the female soldier shouts at him, "Don't check her! She came from the side!", and sends her back. We point out, to a graduate of the "professional checkpoints" course, from the Military Police, that her job is not to meddle in the line of Palestinians, nor is it to educate them. "Until she stands at the end of the line again, she isn't passing, "irg'a l'wara". A soldier who was standing by the side saw how absurd the situation was and let her through quickly. Another woman came from the direction of the road, with a tiny infant. She showed the soldier, "Baby, baby", she was begging and the soldier let her through. At this point, even the checkpoint commander understood that the lines were hardly moving and opened a "humanitarian" line on the size for those over 40.14:40 – A change of shifts among the soldiers, much joy. The stations emptied, they meet each other, greetings, separations, a lot to talk about. We make a comment and 2 of the inspection stations are manned again. The "checkpoint soldiers", soldiers from the Military Police, do not wear name tags which are required.A student from A-Najah is detained because he was wearing a pendant around his neck with a picture of Arafat. The pendant was taken from him and he was imprisoned in the detention shed, which has also gained an electric gate. We turn to A., from the DCO, and the checkpoint commander, N., says "That is inciting material, now we will check him." A. says that he does not mix in to security matters and, after we express amazement and call the army hotline, they give him back his pendant and, after a few minutes, also his documents, and he is released. Meanwhile, the men lose patience and jump over the turnstiles in front. The soldiers send them back.15:00 – The "humanitarian" line did its job and the checkpoint is empty. The new soldiers restricted the number of people working with wagons to 6, and the others complain. Also the young boy Mohammed is thrown out and he begs us to do something so he can come back and work.15:50 – A young man whose bag was found to contain a small saw is detained in the shed. His grandfather asked him to buy a saw for pruning the olive trees belonging to his family. The saw was, naturally, confiscated. We turn to A., from the DCO, and, after a lengthy negotiation, the checkpoint commander gives him back the saw and his document, but not before he explains to him that such a thing is forbidden at the checkpoint, since it is a dangerous weapon.16:00 – A car with the Red Cross symbol is bringing medicines from Ramallah and is detained at the exit. All the necessary permits are displayed and, in spite of this, they waited an hour in line and now another half hour for an unexplained detention. The female soldier who is inspecting refuses to give an explanation for the delay. We call Daliah Bassah, and a telephone calls come within 10 minutes to release them. Before they leave, they say in discouragement, "They shouldn't even give permits. They give them, but they make problems for us all the time, we can't work this way." Meanwhile, the female soldier stops an ambulance which had been called to pick up a sick person from Huwwara village. The document of the driver is "forged" according to her and she prevents him from going through. She shows us the lack of correspondence between the signatures. When she gives him back his documents, he continues to travel in the direction of Huwwara.16:40 – The ambulance returns with the patient, the female soldiers stops him, shouting "I told you to make a U-turn and you went ahead!" She confiscated his ambulance driver's permit. The drivers at the exit complain about their waiting for more than an hour. The inspection of vehicles is done by this one female soldier.17:00 – On the way south, we see a large group of young men and women waiting on the side of the road for a bus which was stuck in the exit line. They have been waiting for 2 hours for him, as they have already paid the fares.We leave with a bad feeling. After a period of easing up, the obtuseness has returned to its former degree. Once in a while Palestinians stop us and ask, "Is peace really on the way?" On the way home we see fields of purple thurmus flowers. Another spring has arrived.