Huwwara 27 March 2005Watchers: Yael B., reporting: Ditza Y. About 7:40 a.m.Tapuach Junction: about 30 cars in the queue for checking.Snap roadblock at the exit from Kedumim and Yitzhar – 14 cars parked.8:00 a.m.Huwwara North: there are few people at the checkpoint.2 detained aged 12 and 19. After their papers are checked they are released but sent back to Nablus.This story is repeated. Youths and young men up to the age of 25 without a permit are detained for checking, which is comparatively quick, but afterwards they are sent back to Nablus.Few people cross via the checkpoint which is staffed by two military policewomen, one of them shouts a lot and she is particularly coarse in her treatment of the Palestinians.8:15 a.m.A detainee is sent back to Nablus accompanied by a salutation from the military policewoman: Get lost! It becomes clear that this is her customary salutation for Palestinians.8:20 a.m.5 detained. After a few minutes one is forced to retrace his steps, the rest cross.We talk to one of the soldiers – N., the roadblock officer, requests us not to talk to him.Many Palestinians, crossing to Nablus, are not checked. However, cars travelling to Nablus are checked.8:30 a.m.A detainee who has an appointment with the D.C.O. in Huwwara is not allowed to cross. When we ask why, we are told that he is on the Shabak list. We approach H., the D.C.O. officer who is humane and who does his best for the Palestinians, after his intervention the young man is released at 9:05 a.m. 2 other soldiers behave humanely towards the Palestinians: K., and M.9:15 a.m.A Palestinian resident of Jerusalem holding a blue identity card was in Nablus to visit his wife who is living there at present. He claims that he was checked going to Nablus and was allowed to go there and he doesn’t understand why he can’t return home. The military policewoman contends that he had already left Nablus (yesterday or the day before) and he was warned that if he entered again, he would not be allowed to return. The Palestinian claims that he had not been there previously, the policewoman is wrong, it was not him, and she bursts out: What, are you saying that I am lying?! You are a liar! And she screams at her colleagues on the shift: He is driving me mad, he is f—ing up my head! And she screams at him: Get in! (to the lock-up). The roadblock officer calls the police to deal with the matter. We hear him on the telephone asking them not to come in three hours time, as they did the previous time he called them. They arrive within one hour. We are not allowed near the police car and we don’t know for how long he was interrogated. From one of the soldiers we understand that he got a ticket – we are not clear what this means.While they were at the roadblock the police took the opportunity to fine a man sitting in the back of a car without a seat belt, one hundred NIS. (Are the same traffic laws effective here as in Israel?) The police were also shown a Palestinian taxi driver whose car was found, when checked, to have stolen parts.10:30 a.m.A Jordanian returning with his family from Nablus to Jordan, ventured to stand with his wife, who was holding a baby in her arms, in the queue by-passing the turnstile designated for women and the elderly. He is sent, accompanied by shouts, to the turnstile by the military policewoman. He is annoyed and curses. As punishment he is sent to the lock-up. When we attempt to point out to the soldiers that punishment at the roadblocks is contrary to army directives – they always have an answer: Their documents need checking. I wonder what would happen if the person crossing to Nablus was American, or Swede and not a Muslim, if the soldiers would then dare to punish him because he cursed when they had enough of the humiliation at the roadblock.We point it out to N., the D.C.O. officer and he indeed gets the man released but not before he is given an educational course by the same military policewoman who has already been mentioned twice. In a lordly fashion with shouts, threatening him (and we are talking about a man who is old enough to be her father): this is the last time you will talk to soldiers like that! Next time you will be kept here, you don’t know how many hours! It is terrible, although understandable, to hear the Jordanian apologise and promise to behave properly in future. We feel that even the soldiers at the roadblock disassociate themselves from the crude behaviour of that military policewoman (whose name we do not know and the soldiers are not prepared to give us). When Yael tries to stop her shouting she too is given the treatment: Shut your mouth!11:00 a.m.We leave with the shouts of the military policewoman ringing in our ears. We come to the decision that we will place a complaint against her.