Huwwara
Huwwara, Sunday 15.10.06 PMObservers: Noa P., Tal H., Judit B., Naomi L. (reporting)Za'atara (Tapuach) Junction – no waiting lines of vehicles, in any directions, no vehicles.Burin (Yitzhar road) road block – replaced again a little ways up the road, not blocking the cars coming away from Nablus-Huwara, only those coming down from Jit Junction. A line of about 12 waiting cars.Huwara CP: commander – lieutenant Y., DCO representative –M.Several quotes of men coming out of a two-hour wait in the crowded-crushed pedestrian lines: "This checkpoint is like fire"; "This is how Hitler treated you"; "All dogs. I stand two hours in line and the soldiers keep swearing at us".A university lecturer who is also a researcher: "Going to Nablus through this checkpoint is like meeting God face to face". He is pale and agitated and referring to the intensity of their humiliation. There was nothing left for us to do but face him, nodding our heads wordlessly.15:19 – Arriving at the CP we found a line of 12 vehicles waiting to go into Nablus, the plastic barrier in place, and no soldiers manning this checking post. Drivers say they have been waiting for an hour. The commander explains it is all because of the pressure at the pedestrian lines. "Besides, you're keeping me" and sends two soldiers right away to get the cars going.At one of the ID checking posts, the woman-soldier stands outside her protected cabin inside one of the passage lanes, checking the men off against the wanted men list, unconnected to the computer. Unplugged. We often ask why such additional posts cannot be opened regularly to shorten waiting time for pedestrians. Here was a live answer that it is indeed possible.A woman with a little child complains that her 39 year old husband has already been sent back to the end of the waiting line three times because of arguments about the age limit. She has been waiting for him for an hour and a half. the DCO rep. explains that today 'elderly' starts at 45 years of age, so that those men used to standing in the special line outside the turnstiles, are now sent to the 'young men's' lines. Later he let us understand that we (the Palestinians) should be thankful that the age limit has gone down from 50 to 45…A man arrives carrying a pneumatic hammer, and shows a confirmation slip from his place of work, but is not permitted to carry it through. The soldier says "case closed" and means the argument is over. The man says: "How will I go to work without it? I am a workman. I have seven kids. What shall I do?" and doesn't budge. Meanwhile the whole waiting line is held in place. The woman-soldier screeches: "This will not go through. End of argument".E., MP officer (mentioned in a report a few days ago saying to cadets of the special MP checkpoint unit that "people at the checkpoint should be treated rigidly for work to succeed". Now he show what rigidity means: take apart the instrument. "With what? What if it breaks down?" asks the workman. "With a screwdriver" answers Eli. "Or else you are not taking it through". "I have no screwdriver" says the workman. "So go back into Nablus and get one", say the rigid Eli. The man has no choice, goes back to Nablus. Comes back after an hour with the compressor in pieces, stands in line all over again, and passes. Half an hour later, at Beit Furiq, another workman with the same type of instrument went through without any argument or harassment.16:00 – whoever has not raised his shirt/undershirt high enough, has to do it again. Scolded. Youngsters are crushed against the turnstiles. Soldiers gesture them to move back, occasionally approach the turnstiles and yell at them. Loud shouts are constantly heard there, for the turnstiles cannot move because of the people pressed against them. The soldiers find this highly amusing.The rain pouring down intermittently throughout our shift drives us under the roof of the now empty shed at the front of the checkpoint, and rigid Eli hurries to shoo us away 'from inside the checkpoint', threatening us he'll call the police. He allows us to stand in the detainees
' pen until the rain stops. We refuse. In a phone call with the brigade deputy commander we hear that our arrival at the CP incites the Palestinians and makes them demand rights, instead of standing there in quiet servility, so WE ARE THE PROBLEM...The cars lined up to exit Nablus reach back out of our field of vision, and the soldiers work at a snail's pace resembling 'an Italian strike'. They are all busy with the porters passing handcarts of wares next to the non-functioning x-ray truck. Passengers are made to disembark in the pouring rain until their vehicles are thoroughly checked. One of the soldiers keeps playing with his weapon, practicing aiming through his telescopic sights towards the crowd, finger on the trigger. A young man with an orthopedic collar on his neck limps by on the trail, showing the soldier his medical documents. As the soldier examines it, the CP commander aims his rifle directly at the man's chest from a distance of about 20 cm.A man holding a car engine in his hands is not allowed through and sent to Awarta CP. The fact that the Cp at Awarta is already closed does not interest anyone in particular.The CP commander says that two years ago, when he served as a soldier at this checkpoint, the Blue-White women (a rightist women's volunteer organization founded to try and prevent our own work at the cp's) told soldiers they come to the checkpoint in order to get us out of there by creating brawls so that the brigade commander would keep all of us away from the CP.17:30 – the checkpoint nearly empty. The last pedestrians hurry through to reach their 'breaking the fast' dinner. The x-ray truck that was not functioning throughout our shift leaves, as well as the detector-dog ladies.There are now two detainees in the pen: one's name came up in the wanted list, the other – an Israeli citizen who entered Nablus. The wanted man tells us that for the past 7 months every time he arrives at a CP, he is detained for 5 hours and then released. He lost his job for he could never arrive to work on time. This time his luck ran out: after waiting for over an hour, he is shackled and taken with a jeep to the nearby army base. Perhaps he'll receive some more lucrative offers there?The Israeli citizen, having waited for over an hour and a half now, loses his patience and demands to either be released or for 'something' to be done with him. We contacted him with the Ariel police station, and he – and the commander - were told that the police has no interest and has long since instructed the brigade to release him.But the brigade has not yet gotten back to the CP about this and the commander will do nothing without the brigade's instructions. Although he realizes the catch.Meanwhile, there is the following argument about how Palestinian citizens of Israel would know that they are not allowed into Nablus: 1. "They know"; 2. "When they are issued their Israeli ID, they are told"; 3. "It is written clearly at the entrance". 4. All of the above. We were stunned at how convinced these young army officers that all this was true. It is clear to us that even when the police instructs the detainees to be released, the brigade brass rule they should be taught a lesson. 18:13 – the cp commander runs an exercise maneuver for the soldiers. While a few Palestinians (two women, two small children and several men) stand and wait in line, soldiers kneel behind concrete ledges, yell "fire! fire! fire!", charge ahead on the run, while the stunned Palestinians stand quietly, like extras on a filming location, and wait. "Life freeze!" shouts the commander. "Attack on the checkpoint!" "Shabak (GSS) tells us to let only women through! Only children! Only men!..." "Everyone cock your weapons and charge!" all of these orders accompanied by giggles from all directions. By now several dozen Palestinians are waiting in line. This takes time.And then: The soldiers line along the concrete ledges, no MPmen or women around, 5 checking posts!! calling to the Palestinians, waiting in a state of shock, "come on! come on already!!" and within minutes, everyone gets through, with all their luggage, young and old alike. Normally it would have taken about an hour to process this number of people. After all, there is Israeli security to be considered…19:00 – we left, together with the Palestinian citizen of Israel and his wife who ended up waiting over two hours. Did 'they' learn their lesson?