Huwwara south & north

Huwwara southWed. 16/2/05, PMSimonne R., Nina S. (reporting)Huwwara northWatching: Birya L., Eilat B. (reporting)We arrived at Tapuach junction about 13.45, there is a checkpoint on the road leading from the west into the junction and from the north. Traffic was flowing freely, but from the north, where 40 cars were standing in the queue. These however were let through rather easily only traffic was heavy.We continued to Huwwara where things were running smoothly all the time. Very few were waiting to be checked and there were times when nobody was waiting. The turnstiles are functioning but at times the women were asked to bypass them and at the end all were bypassing them.Upon arrival there were no detainees. Soon some young men were stopped and the first were released only after an hour and a half in spite of our nagging of the soldiers and their nagging, in turn, their counterparts that were checking the IDs. Later the time shortened to not more then 30 minutes (Has our complaint to the DCO helped?)We left about 16.45, as per Yaakov Manor's advice. He passed by us and said he received some warnings and we should not stay after sundown. In the Tapuach junction there were now 17 cars waiting. We checked and found that about 3 cars a minute were passing, Which is not slow considering there is a check point.Huwarra North14.10 – 8 Students are detained including 2 girls.4 Soldiers in the checking boxes, no monitors (the system has collapsed). Checking is slow. About 40 are waiting to be checked.A. the commander is efficient, polite and serious.The left hand side turnstile is being repaired.14.15 - Another detainee.Passage for cars coming from the south is blocked (by a cable) and that stops every car arriving from the south. An ambulance lights flashing siren blowing has to wait about one minute until the cable is lowered.14.30 – about 80 people waiting to be checked. All detainees have been released.Now, only young men pass in one turnstile. The rest, pass very quickly in the line west of the turnstiles.14.50 – about 40 men are waiting to be checked. No women are waiting.Muhammad, the kid, has found customers to carry their bags. An old lady and what seemed her daughter. We found them midway, between south and north, while he was trying to “load” the lady on to the carriage….it turns out she is very ill and cannot walk the distance. We stopped a passing car to give her a lift across and Muhammad continued with the parcels towards the northern end where he was caught by A.!!! A. stopped him for a “motivation talk”, together with the DCO officer, and the young woman and her parcels were left in the middle of the road. We tried to explain to A. the problem of the old lady waiting at the other end and asked him at least to let the woman to continue with the carriage herself, but they were too busy teaching the boy a lesson and wouldn’t solve the problem. Meantime the old lady managed to get back, from where she was let off the car, as she got worried about her partner….We found her a chair and the “spare” carriage pusher that Nina sent from the south arrived to take over, but now Muhammad was bargaining with him and would not agree to get only the 5 NIS the new carriage pusher was giving him.15.00 – 16.10 there was one detainee that was released before we left.