Afternoon

31/12/2003 Huwwara, Wednesday afternoon, 31 Dec 2003.MachsomWatch Observers: Anat G., Alona K., Yehudit K., Dafna B. Brief report: Total closure (called "throat"- garon, namely choking). Throughout all Nablus checkpoints.A 74 year old man from Sarra with nowhere to go. Harassment of Palestinians in Sarra. It is the last day of 2003, one of our visitors is a founding member of MachsomWatch -Yehudit K. 1300, The Za'atra junction (Tapuach): Za'atra is manned only from the direction of north to south. No pedestrians but a long line of vehicles. The other CP sections are abandoned. Huwwara South Very few people, none are allowed passage. No soldiers, has the Messiah arrived? Heavens no! It is simply a total choking closure, so no need for two checkpoints. Huwwara North:We successfully intercede on behalf of a woman with 4 children, the holder of a blue [Israeli] ID who had stayed in Nablus fo 12 days and seeks to return home to Jerusalem. The others havent a chance. When Ofer arrives he deals with a few special cases such as 3 old persons who arrived from Jordan \through the Allenby Bridge and are in possessions of all the necessary papers. However one of them is from Sarra and wants to go there,Ofer informs him that he cannot reach Sarra via Nablus, we offered to give him a lift there together with his enormous suitcase. Sarra:Not a soul to be seen in Sarra except for 4 soldiers , a horrible sight and an inexplicable evil feeling, negative vibes. CP commander refused to let the old man pass nor did he agree to speak to Ofer, only via the IDF communication (kesher) so until the order arrives he orders us to leave the CP. We go down and wait where normally Palestinians trudge their feet up the hill. Some time later Ofer informs us that the brigade order has come through, we walk up the hull but are refused by the soldiers - who claim they didn’t receive the order and "just piss off"/We go down again back and forth for two hours , I hear Ofer talk on the line to the brigade to say the order has been given. We phoned the DCO, they took our license plate number so that the CP commander would let us pass with the miserable old man who insists on showing us his papers. We feel hopeless. Finally Ofer says he will do his best- and we are allowed to move after obtaining a long lecture from the commander on how it is his duty to obey orders and he would shoot me as well if told to do so, or even if a woman is about to give birth he would refuse her passage if told to do so. I asked him how he sleeps at night and he said great. By then it was 1700 and dark, total "seger", what do we do with the guy? we could not leave him on the main road, ,eventually we drove to the village of Jatt, found a taxi and people who were willing to look after him over night. The old man was most grateful, we felt awful -a 75 year old man lost in the middle of nowhere. This was not the end. We had a call from someone who knows Shelly that there are some detainees with handcuffs, since the previous day. In Sarra, we are told that they were beaten, one managed to escape and report. I approached the soldiers at the CP to say I wanted to visit an acquaintance, they seemed very nervous and of course refused my request. I phone Ofer and the DCO and asked them to check the story, I was connected to Yuval; at the IDF Humanitarian Center, very helpful and later informed me that our forces report that there is no event in Sarra. I later learn that they left the Palestinians with their hands cuffed in the olive grove, but they managed to free themselves. Huwwara:Anat and Alona remained at Huwwara. Two detainees were brought there, one a 14.5-year-old youngster who lay handcuffed on the ground , we could not help.