Huwwara, Sun 7.12.08, Afternoon
Translation: Tal H.
15:15 In honor of the holiday, leniency reported in the procedures. But let's not overdo it. Here are the details:
DCO representative - Tomer, Commander - X, X-ray truck in action, and as usual, from 4:30 PM on, the anti-bomb sniffer-doggie.
2 active ID checking posts for the young men's lines - active as usual, complete with metal detectors, shoe removal, belts, the works. Less people passing through than usual, probably because no students on eve of holiday.
2 detainees
in the hold, one brought hither by soldiers for trying to travel through Palestinians fields and not in the orderly checkpointed manner, to the merry sounds of Rapper Simcha (Joy), the entertaining MPwoman (more below).
The special line for women and the elderly mostly coming through without checks, but for the preservation of arbitrariness, sometimes there are checks. But mostly not.
Vehicles: exiting from Nablus, cars are inspected as usual.
Entering Nablus, they are not. However! Habit makes drivers slow down and stop where the soldiers usually check their papers. Then they scratch their head in bewilderment, wondering where have all the soldiers gone, and trying to figure out what they're supposed to understand from this sudden bliss. The soldiers are always saying "they (the Palestinians) know". But here suddenly "they" don't know. So what do valorous soldiers do? Stand aside, a bit further off, and crack up for sheer laughter at the Palestinians who don't know a thing, do they? Now isn't this fun?
17:00 So here's the real fun: five minutes no Palestinians are being checked at the ID posts, because the soldiers have apparently tired of the routine, so a few of them including one MPwoman play stay through-back off time and again through the metal detector, activating it loudly and incessantly with the metal of their gun barrels, next to brave Simcha (Joy) the MPwoman in order to make her screech the way she does so well. It works: she produces a wild rap routine busy with... us, stupid Machsomwatchers and how they stand and write down everything we say and do to the poor Palestinians oh yeah oh yeah etc. ad infinitum.
Since the victims of this entertainment as usual are the Palestinians who have not been enlightened as to what all this is about, they only know they have been delayed again, and are laughed to their faces, how hilarious while their IDs are not really even looked at while they are taken and handed back but they had to wait there like sheep for so long until let through - we called the army hotline simply to report this new brand of harassment. At least let there be a record.
17:25 - we folded up and took our shame home to roost.