Huwwara north

Huwwara north, Sunday, 6.2.2005 AMObservers: Arza A, Ditza Y, (reporting)A 12-year-old boy is pushing a cart bigger than him,carrying loads, for money, for people going through the checkpoint. The commander tells is that he has 15 siblings and the family is povertystricken. He came to the checkpoint a few days ago, crying, said he was hungry and there was no food at home. The commander agreed to let him work. A little humanity in an inhumane place.8.05 Bitterly cold and heavy rain. Sparse traffic, five detainees. A soldier is standing and talking to them in friendly man-to-man fashion, trying to help them. It is noteworthy that he lives in one of the settlements. One of the detainees is a driver who crossed the virtual line. The soldiers know him and he is not under suspicion, he is being detained as a kind of punishment for trespassing. This is indeed a problem but it is a little ironic that the soldiers are trying to educate the drivers and make sure that they all have equal opportunities to get passengers at the checkpoint.8.20 An older woman with a mentally sick son aged 18-29. He has no permit and isn’t allowed through. She explains to the soldiers that she has to take him to a doctor in Qalqiliya, but they say it’s impossible. A., from DCO, arrived, releases him at once and lets them through.There were 20 detainees during our watch, released after a short time, apart from one who stood for an hour, a long time on such a cold day.All we did was plead with the soldiers to speed up checks because of the weather. They did their best and kept calling up to speed up the process. We stood with the detainees. The cold was intolerable. The detainees paced up and down to keep warm. I thought that I could leave at any time while they were forced to stand there without knowing for how long.10.00 No detainees. Sparse traffic through the turnstiles. 3 men want to go through to Jordan but are not permitted, because they have no passage permits.We left.