soldiers showed no flexibility at all, and, stony-faced, they turned back anyone whose address did not fit..

There were unannounced roadblocks on the way to Huwwara near Tel Zion and near Az- Zawiya with many cars waiting to pass south, and all passengers being checked.

Huwwara Extra closure measures were in force so that only Nablus residents were allowed in and only residents of villages south of Nablus were allowed out. Otherwise only "urgent medical cases" were allowed to go through the checkpoint, and, as usual, it was strong, healthy, young soldiers who were the ones authorized to determine who was a sufficiently urgent case. The soldiers, for their part, were proud of their talent to detect lies.

Nobody knew why the extra closure measures had been imposed and we heard the usual statements about security alerts. Among those turned back at the checkpoint were old people, one of them, an old woman, was in tears; people with work permits, including medical staff; a desperate man who needed to collect his wife and new-born child from Nablus; a man with a broken denture who was trying to get to a dental technician to have it fixed; parents with sick children; people in urgent need of their medication which they had to pick up; others who had medical and dental appointments, etc., etc.

At the southern checkpoint we noticed that while the soldiers yelled at people quite a bit, they also listened and showed a certain degree of flexibility., and, one has to say it, that almost certainly had something to do with our presence there.

At the northern checkpoint, the soldiers showed no flexibility at all, and, stony-faced, they turned back anyone whose address did not fit into the categories permitted to move through the checkpoint. The representative of the District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that deals with civilian matters], lieutenant I. showed up briefly at the southern end and allowed through quite a few medical cases, but then he disappeared and was replaced later by captain E. who refused to speak to us, claiming that one Machsomwatch observer had called him nasty names.

We explained that we disapproved strongly of name-calling and then he became a bit more open. With his help and some extra negotiations, we were able to push through a young man and his mentally sick sister who were on their way to Nablus' Rafidiya hospital for her monthly injection. They had elected to go to Nablus, rather than Bethlehem, where she is usually treated, because of the closure at Wadi Nar.

The sister and brother both had special authorizations for movement on closure days. Since it was May Day and a university holiday, there were no students at the checkpoint. M.B. of the Physicians for Human Rights organization did answer our calls but failed to call us back.