Huwwara South

Huwwara south, Saturday 12.2.2005 AMObservers: Miri Z., Vivi Z. (reporting) Huwwara South At Huwwara south checkpoint a new paratroopers unit and no military police. The commander is businesslike and diligent but identifies with checkpoint policy and the occupation. A lot of people and long lines which move fast.Abut 25 cars with permits to go through to Nablus. A taxi without permit carrying an aged man and woman is not allowed to pass and the couple, on the commander’s orders, are transferred to a a private car with a permit. On the one hand a humane gesture; on the other, the commander and his men could have permitted the taxi drive another two hundred meters particularly since the driver and a young escort offered to leave their IDs as guarantee.Several detainees during the watch who go through after various waiting periods. They include a severe diabetic detained till his details are checked and he goes through to Nablus after half an hour. We encounter him quite often as his condition is severe and he often visits the Nablus hospital. He doesn’t have a permanent pass and sometimes he needs urgent treatments. He is detained every time. We asked his permittion to find out how to obtain a permanent pass for someone chronically ill. Among the detainees was a 55-year-old man and the soldiers claimed there was a confidential reason for his detention – he was released after half an hour.Three men with Jordanian passports on a family visit were allowed to pass as were two women with US passports working in a humanitarian organizations “Mercy Society”. They told us that every time they have to obtain telephoned approval from a certain officer in a unit whose name we didn’t comprehend and have not succeeded in obtaining a written permit.A distraught father, a Huwwara resident, comes to the south checkpoint and asks the help of the commander because his 15-year-old son is not being allowed back into Huwwara through the north checkpoint. Yesterday the boy accompanied his grandfather to hospital by ambulance through the south checkpoint. At first he was asked to bring one of his parents with an ID. The mother came and the military policewoman refused to allow him through because they wanted his birth certificate. The commander intervened and the boy went through when the father brought his own ID.On the way back at Halamish junction there was an unannounced checkpoint. A very long convoy of cars starting at the junction and ending far beyond the bend in the road to Atara and Surda. We counted more than 50 cars including buses full of passengers. The soldiers who saw us walking towards the cars were hostile and aggressive at first, but Amalia was acquainted with the commander from the past and the atmosphere immediately changed. The soldiers gestured to cars to come colser, cast a glance at them, and waved them through. They said they were waiting for a particular wanted man, and would be dismantling the checkpoint within fifteen minutes and moving elsewhere. A detained taxi was parked at the roadside. The ID of one of the passengers was taken two hours ago and is being checked by the Security Service.Less than fifteen minutes later the checkpoint was dismantled, the ID was returned (we believe that it was not checked at all) and the soldiers drove away. Our colleagues at Beit Iba encountered them fifteen minutes later setting it up elsewhere.