PM

Jubara, Tuesday afternoon, January 20, 2004 Observers: D, G, DL, RK and AD 12:30 - The Schoolchildren’s Gate: Some 20 small children and a teacher arrived at the gate. The head of the local council and some dignitaries were photographed standing next to them, while they were on the other side of the fence. We spoke to someone from the Belgian consulate who told us that Israel refuses to allow them to build a junior school in the village.We phoned the brigade “war-room” and Kamil from the DCO [IDF Civilian Administration office] to ask where were the soldiers who were supposed to open the gate. At the war room they said they were busy opening other gates.At 13:00, the patrol arrived and opened the gate. As usual, the soldiers’ weapons were trained on the children crossing to go home into the compound. The teacher who crossed through said that more children would be arriving at 13:30. We passed this on to Kamil, who hadn’t known about it. When we returned at around 13:35, the patrol reported to us that they were opening the gate for more children. 13:00 - Jubara checkpoint. It was quite quiet, people went through without being checked, from the direction of Tulkarm, a few people, vehicles and soldiers – from the Nachshon unit - they looked relaxed. There was an IDF reservist from the DCO, a dark-skinned man with a skullcap, who helped several people to go through. 13:40 A detainee who came from the direction of Jubara, was declared an "illegal" [= no residence or transit permit] and sent to the “punishment corner”. Later, when the checkpoint commander turned up (a small dark captain with a scar and eyeglasses; I’ve forgotten his name, he very often solves problems), he told us that the procedure says that punishment is up to 4 hours for illegals. I asked him where the order originated, but got no answer. I think it’s worth finding out at the higher ranks – do we have any contact with Ephraim, the brigade commander? Five men were waiting to get back their identity cards – taken from them when they were caught driving on Hwy 60 where Palestinians are forbidden to drive. They were in a car with yellow [Israeli] number-plates and an Israeli driver. Two hours later - again, when the checkpoint commander arrived - they were released. A sergeant, a surly type, refused to allow an elderly man from Taibeh to go home, and sent him to Gate 700. An IDF reservist from the DCO intervened and he was allowed to go through. A woman arrived with a little girl, and a painful back after an accident; she is from Tira and has a blue [Israeli] ID card. She pleaded to go to Faroun but was refused. Once again, it was only the captain, the checkpoint commander, who allowed her to cross. The same captain let a young man cross to Jubara after the sergeant had refused to let him do so. At some point, the soldiers held an exercise at the checkpoint. They ran with rifles toward the crossing to Tulkarm – it was a frightening sight and alarmed a group of women who were walking in the soldiers’ direction. We complained about it to an officer who passed by.A lot of vehicles and soldiers arrived at the checkpoint because a vehicle had been seized with disassembled car-parts in it. Towards the end of our shift, a B’Tselem vehicle drove up: one of the passengers was Member of Knesset Amram Mitzna [previous Labor Party candidate for Prime Minister] who was given a guided tour of Huwwara, Beit Furik and other sites.