Huwwara north & south

Huwwara Sunday 30.1.05 PMObservers: Noa P., Drora S., Susan L. (reporting)Summary: In spite of all the changes we hear and read about, none of us inMachsomWatch are surprised that it's more of the same in the WestBank. The four lane highway to Ariel is spotlessly clean, the widest,well lit highway anywhere, and it's continuing to be built beyondAriel, gouging its way through kilometers of olive groves; a newsettlement with paler than usual red roofs and caravans, dots thelovely terraced landscape as one drives east with a brand new roadcarved into the hillside leading up to it; a recently built industrialarea adds to the economy that's already there, and the only checkpointuntil Tapuach is a makeshift one where the green line once was. TheNablus checkpoints are only made more bearable when there's a decenthuman being in charge. 13:45 A group of settler youths at Tapuach, a line of cars, trucks andbuses on the other side of the junction. Signs, in red and white, forthe demonstration in Jerusalem "grace" the various concrete bouldersboth here and at Huwwara.The road to Beita, recently under curfew, is open, people walkingtowards the village with its gold topped mosque. 13:55 Huwwara South:There are six detainees, five are let go shortly after our arrival.D., the soldier in charge, goes to the remaining one, shakes his handand begins to talk with him. It's not busy, the women military policeand male soldiers all relaxed.14:30-15:15 Huwwara North:A couple of settler youths, women and men, converse with soldiers; theemblazoned Chevrolet truck, with its loudly humming generator, throughwhich packages, luggage and parcels pass, is straddled across thepathway leading from the checkpoint, and it's busy out of Nablus. Oneof the computers stops working, and O., the multilingualrepresentative of the DCO's office, helps the soldiers out withchecking IDs. O. (yes, another "O.") is the soldier in charge, one ofthe most easygoing and cheerful, humane we've met. He problem-solvesan issue with a group of women, one of whom is a teacher, the othertwo under 18 years old and without proper identification. A call totheir homes unravels the sticky situation. A distinguished lookingman, Jordanian passport, chats briefly with O., telling us he's fromthe World Bank, comes this way once a month and comments: "Therearen't many like him." We agree and pass on the compliment to O. whobrushes it aside, but is obviously pleased. M., the soldier at the"x-ray" machine, talks of his boredom - here, before that checkpointsin Bethlehem, next, in a couple of weeks, Hebron.