Huwwara

Huwwara, Sunday 22.10.06 PMObservers: Judit B., Noa P., Galit G., Tal H. and Naomi L. reporting15:30 Beit Iba CPObservers: Galit G., Judit B., Tal H. reportingWe visited the Beit Iba-Shavei Shomron Checkpoint and listened to the two soldiers checking vehicles bound for Nablus. It's been long since we have heard such pearls combined with incessant spitting and contemptuous little finger gestures directing the drivers, in between the "Go on move it!! Shut up!!! You f-----er!!!" again and again and again. As we had heard that the local cp commander seemed more civilized than others and tended to solve problems quickly, we decided to share with him what we'd seen and heard. I approached him discreetly, politely and unimposingly, asked to have a word with him away from his men, he listened willingly to what I had to tell him, responded with a half-smile "I heard you, thank you" and we parted.I emphasized my view – that in spite of the "much graver problems facing us these days", such behavior constructs and reinforces hostility.All road checkpoints were in full function on the way to Huwara: at Jit Junction 16 cars were waiting coming from the south, at the Za'atara-Tapuach Junction very few Palestinian cars, and on the road to Yitzhar close to the Junction, a line of Palestinian cars waiting for the nth time to show IDs for the nth time hoping they get through on their way to the next roadblock.16:15 – Huwwara (Beracha Settlement) CPNo Palestinians! The last day of the Ramadan fast, eve of the Eid Al Fitr holiday, and just a trickle of pedestrians, the atmosphere at the cp calm and smiling, 2 soldiers walking around picking up garbage. We were astounded… Youngsters get through faster than ever, the securing soldier points his rifle at their chest while joking around with them.A detainee held in the concrete cell is taken out, shackled, his head covered with his hood, led to the military jeep and taken away. People hurry on home and we feel 'unemployed' facing this unusual calm. We meant to leave earlier than usual when…the phone rang and spoilt the picture:- a taxi driver from Till reported a jeep with 3 soldiers who have been harassing the villagers since 6 a.m. and now that Ramadan is over and they're hurrying home there is a 70-car waiting line stuck there for two hours. "It's not a checkpoint, just a roadblock", the army hotline corrects us, and asks for an exact designation of the site. We reminded the hotline that the last we heard of this place, two people had been shot and hospitalized, and we asked to stop keeping people from going home. Half an hour later the taxi driver happily informed us that the block was lifted and gone.- Barakat, driver of the water tanker from Madame who has a humanitarian vehicle permit from the army to pass all the checkpoints without waiting in line, reports to us that on the bridge at Madame, an army jeep is not letting him pass and deliver his last water round before the holiday begins. Experienced in such matters, he gave us the jeep's license plate number and said "I’m saying it loud so the soldiers hear me and leave…" 10 minutes later, he called us again, frightened, because the soldiers threatened that now they would not let him through at all. We called the army hotline. This water tanker and its driver have become the current plaything of the soldiers at the road blocks. "Pull off to the side, you're not passing, stand in line like everyone else, you're messing things up for me, you're blocking the junction, I don't care about this permit…" Every few days he calls me (Naomi) and I call the hotline and the hotline calls the DCO and the DCo calls the brigade and the soldiers get their orders to let Barakat pass, and he calls to tell me "Thank you, take care:… and so on and again and again. Since we had the jeep number this time this episode had its happy end as well after a quarter of an hour, and Barakat, grateful as always to be able to deliver the water and feed his five children.- phone call from Beit Furiq (Alon More Settlement) Checkpoint telling us there is are 40 cars lined up at the exit and the soldiers are working at snail's pace. we called the hotline again and promised that if the line be processed quickly and considering the holiday, we'd not call them again. Half an hour later we were informed that everyone had passed through.- Call from Hannah who reported that Huwwara village was under a 4 hour curfew for a stone had been thrown at a settlers' car, and she was asking how things were now, as the holiday set in. When we arrived at the Huwwara Sweets shop, it was open and lively as were the shops nearby although people were already in their home. That was some relief from feeling that our earlier ease had been premature and that holiday or no holiday, the usual distress was uppermost.