Morning

An officer of the civil administration was present to handle humanitarian cases and a unit of reasonable and civil soldiers was on duty. When we arrived, 6 soldiers were manning the checkpoint, a crowd of about hundred people were waiting to pass, and 2 ambulances were queuing. The checking of the ambulances took 5 minutes but the pedestrians' movement was extremely slow. After 20 minutes, an officer arrived and began to "organize" the crowd. Old people and women were lined up in a separate lane and given preferential treatment.We singled out the "problem cases" and passed them over to the treatment of the soldiers, who were cooperating, although within the framework of their orders, which are changing from day to day, sometimes from hour to hour. On Saturday only residents of Nablus could pass, or people with permits. The officer from the civil administration was rather pleasant, but had difficulties coping with so many problems and "overlooked" some very sick persons, so that we had toremind him! During our shift 15 ambulances passed. Checking time was 5 - 15 minutes.At 12:00 a man who was waiting in the line fainted. A soldier asked the team of a waiting ambulance to render medical aid and the man was treated on the spot. After 20 minutes he was transported to a Nablus hospital.The northern part of the checkpoint was manned by 4 soldiers. We. Had to ask one of them to remove a concrete block with the graffiti "Death to Arabs", which stood in the center of the checkpoint. About 50 people waited to be allowed out of Nablus. Those with permits could pass, all the others had to "convince" the soldiers, that they entered Nablus "legally". We were asked to locate 2 confiscated IDs, but the soldiers could not spot them.Between the southern and northern checkpoint the road turns east to the settlement of Itamar. This "explains" the absurd location of this checkpoint which arbitrarily divides the two Palestinian cities, Huwwara and Nablus!I'd like to point out, that the civil nature of the procedures at Huwwara checkpoint on Saturday can not alleviate the pain of a young father, who could not see his newborn son, because his wife, a Westbanker, was denied residence in Jerusalem, while he, a Jerusalemite, was not allowed to enter Nablus. It can not alleviate the sorrow of a brother, who was unable to visit his sick sister. And it can not alleviate the humiliation of a man in post-surgical condition, who had to be supported and dragged across the checkpoint by foot, because cars are not allowed to drive there and to hire an ambulance is much too expensive!