Huwwara North and South

HUWWARA , Monday 13 December 2004 AMObservers: Deganit E., Yael B.-S., Micky F., Yudit (reporting) Guests: Amla, Petra colour=red>08:45 – Huwwara SouthOver 100 Palestinians were waiting in the men’s line. One man went through and the turnstile got stuck in such a way so that it was impossible to release it from inside [these are not simple turnstiles such as one finds in a subway station, but high , revolving gates made of steel bars: each segment is barely large enough to admit one average-sized person; there is virtually no room to spare for anything that person may be carrying , whether a child or a parcel; passage for pregnant women or for the elderly is extremely difficult and frightening]. Someone jumped over to the other side to release the lock – his reward: a soldier shouted at him.The Palestinians told us the checkpoint had been closed this morning for an hour.The second turnstile was out of order and about 20 women went through from the side. After an hour and a half the line petered out.There were 20 detainees. [Detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 or 35 who have no passage permits; recently, young women, too, have been detained. The detainees' ID details are phoned through to the General Security Services (GSS, also known as the Shabak or the Shin Bet, the Hebrew acronym for the GSS) for checking against a central list of security suspects and the answers are then relayed back to the checkpoints. This cumbersome process can take considerable time, and that can be prolonged even more if the soldiers wait to accumulate a batch of ID cards before passing them on to the GSS , or if they behave in a similarly tardy manner at the end of the process, waiting until they have a batch of GSS clearances before they release individual detainees. Meanwhile, the detainees are virtually prisoners at the checkpoint where the soldiers retain the ID cards until the entire process is completed]. Many of today's detainees were students, but not from an-Najah University in Nablus. Their ID cards were returned after an hour, and almost all of them were turned back.A father arrived with a 14-year-old boy. The commander told them the lad needed a passage permit from the age of 14. Some detainees were released and others took their places. 08:45 – Huwwara NorthThere was only a trickle of people going through. Four taxi drivers were detained for two hours because they had crossed the "virtual" line [which keeps them at a considerable distance from the checkpoint and also from their potential passengers]. One young man was detained for half an hour.11.15 – We left. Both checkpoints were almost empty..