Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Mon 4.8.08, Afternoon

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Observers: 
Riva B., Merav A., Noa P. - reporting
Aug-4-2008
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Afternoon
Seriously? Does this make us safer?

Translation: Hanna K.

14:30: Sha'ar Shomron: Where is the police? Where is the Border Police?


14:40: Opposite Ariel the development work continues.

Marda - The two gatesinfo-icon are open, the western and the eastern one. Zeita Jama'in - still closed.

Za'tara: There are reservists at the CP.
From the west there is absolutely no queue.
From the north: four cars.
There are not vehicles detained at the CP itself.
The soldier guarding the lamp at the center of the square, stands at his position. On the other hand the hitch-hiking stops are without personal guards.
 

15:00: Beit Furik:
The upper parking lot is empty - almost no cars and no pedestrians. The coffee vendor says - truly, this is a good CP... There are rumors that the CP will soon be dismantled...
There are no entering pedestrians, and in the outgoing persons queue there is a serious sparsity.
The CP  commander, whose rank is that of a lieutenant, comes up to us: Shalom, are you watch? May I help you? Ok, be here but try not to disturb. We promised.
A car is checked by presenting papers only. The next one - the driver is asked to get out of the vehicle and to open the trunk. The next car, an agricultural commercial vehicle - the drivers ID is checked against the list of wanted persons, when there was no match - he is released.
15:20 - We note that vehicles are checked in two lanes - for entering vehicles and for outgoing one simultaneously!

15:30 Huwwara:
There are
seven detaineesinfo-icon waiting for us in the in the solitary confinement cell.
According to one of them he is held there for five hours already, without water or food
. He asked to drink water, in order to swallow psychiatric pills, but the soldiers  were alarmed by him and confined him to the cell. According to T., from the DCO, not one of the prisoners was held there more than for the prescribed three hours.
Water is given to them following our explicit request. A few moments after our arrival the young man is released, together with two others. In their stead another young man is detained.
Thus the permitted inventory quota in the Huwwara detention cell  is maintained - only five persons simultaneously.
The CP commander. Second Lieutenant E., who refused to talk to us when we turned to him, suddenly shouts: make yourselves scarce! Back, back!!
We complained about his behavior to the humanitarian center.
We: why? We didn't cross the line, so as no to create any provocation.
He: but she (pointing to Merav) is taking pictures! It is forbidden to take pictures!
It is allowed to take pictures...
He, in a rage: really? It is allowed to take pictures of soldiers? Since when??

An Israeli young man is detained because he entered Nablus, to work, without authorization.
Quickly two women join the others, a mother and a daughter,  because they entered Nablus to visit relatives, they too without an authorization.
The police which is summoned to take care of them , is requested to take care of us too.
The policeman arrives, tries to say that it is forbidden for us to stay in an area which is defined by him as "closed military area", and that "it is forbidden for us to go and talk to the prisoners".
Merav explains that first of all the people we talk to are no prisoners - they are detainees, and that as a human rights organization it is our duty to go to the detainees to find out  whether they received water, and why they are detained, etc.
The incident ends without results. The policeman releases the Israeli detainees, and from us he didn't even ask to see the IDs.

There is a visit of the Golani Battalion Commander (Lieutenant Colonel A.F.) accompanied by four adjutants - his company commanders... The CP commander complains to him about us, about our photographing.
The battalion commander F., says that he has no problem with our presence or with our picture taking....
We had a conversation with him and with the company commander of the company which mans Huwwara.
At the end of the conversation we got his telephone number, in order to solve problems directly with him, without having to turn to the Center as an intermediary (in the course of our conversation he got a phone call from the brigade concerning the behavior of E. the commander).
He says: "In the end, all of us want the same thing - that the CP be managed in the best and most humane manner possible.
We smiled. We have slightly different aspirations...

A woman comes up to us and tells this story: she is an inhabitant of Tira, her mother, aged 83, was run over by an Israeli arab citizen, in the village of Ramallah, a month ago. She hospitalized her in a private hospital and that was that. The mother is in a serious medical condition which deteriorates from day to day. Since her release she is hospitalized in the Rafidiya hospital in Nablus and her treatment is bad. She wants to transfer her to an Israeli hospital but this is too expensive, and as there is no file at the Israeli police - it is impossible to force the insurance company of the injuring driver to pay for the hospitalization. She begs for help.
The quick queue gets mixed under the shed, women and men together.
The passage is blocked by a plastic barrier and an iron grille on top of that.
The x-ray vehicle is still not working
.
There is no dog trainer or dog.
The red barrier moved since last week and is now positioned without a flag flying over it, in order to delay the queue of cars leaving Nablus.

A car is checked - its passengers are waiting in the sun for eight long minutes until they are allowed to enter it again and go on their way.


17:20 - The Samaria CP:
There are five detainees.
One of them who speaks Hebrew well, tells us that they were detained at seven in the morning by the Rosh Ha-Ayin police, where they were held until they were brought to the CP an hour ago. According to the CP commander  (with the rank of sergeant) only half an hour passed since they arrived.
The CP commander wants to know "how is one accepted to do your kind of work?" We explained that this is no work, it is volunteer work, and that one has to be - that's how it is - a woman... he repeats his question, probably in order to make us feel bad regarding ourselves, so what, I cannot be accepted by you? 
Ten minutes after our arrival everybody was released. They thank us in many languages: Arabic, Hebrew, English, French, Russian...