Hawarre, Tapuach Wednesday 27/7/05 PMWatchers: Deborah(English translation), Halalee, Ama(guest from GreenPeace), Amira(reporting)SUMMARY: 1) We got mixed messages at the Tapuach Intersection. Matak told us the cars from Nablus are allowed to pass southward but not those from Tul Karm or from Kalqiliah.2) It took a long time for each bus leaving Nablus to be checked at the Hawarre checkpoint. 3) Taxicabs and private cars owned by people living in Beit Furik are allowed to pass through the Beit Furiq checkpoint in either direction as long as they drop off their passengers before entering the checking area. The passengers have to go through the checkpoint line.4) Captain A. officer of the Battalion said he and his Commander would like to work together with us.2:00PM Tapuach:15 vehicles were on the line going southward. The cars moved quickly. Each car took about a minute. As mentioned above there was a change in the “seperation” policy as of today . Drivers from Nablus were allowed to go south toward Ramallah but drivers from Kalqiliah and Tul Karm and the north were not. The soldiers checked only IDs. We did not see any cars that were told to turn around and go back from whence they came. The checkpoint that checked cars from the east had a portable toilet that we had not seen before. When we left a new line of about 8 cars going south had formed .2:30 Hawarre:There were 6 young men detainees who said they had been there more than a half hour. A half hour later 5 of them were released. One detainee who did not have an ID was not released. He claimed he would be 16 in two months. An hour later he was released but was sent back in the direction of Nablus. However, he didn’t give up and continued to try the entire shift to go south. He spoke to O. the Matak representative for a very long time to no avail. We were told by one of the soldiers that this young man had originally tried to run away toward the south without passing through the checkpoint and that was why he had been detained. Calling the Moked did not help. O. from the Matak tried to answer all our questions and to be helpful. He had a very quiet and considerate manner. Today there was no checking of parcels between the turnstiles. In fact until the very end of our shift parcels were not checked at all. At about 5:15PM Officer T. asked that the chain on the road be put up and that parcels be checked as the pedestrians exited the checkpoint. There was very light pedestrian traffic the entire time and the short lines moved quickly. There was no need for a humanitarian line.Captain A. Officer of the Battalion, received us as we arrived at the checkpoint. He asked (many times) if we would be willing to meet with him and the Commander of the Battalion. They have decided they want to hear our complaints and to work more efficiently. Once every two weeks when A. goes home and finds the time, he reads our reports and he feels that most of the complaints are justified. However, by the time he has read the report it is too late to attend to what has happened. He wants to know in real time and then he can do something about it. He knew nothing about our meeting today with the Brigade Commander. He claims that on the field he is the best person to contact about problems. While he was still there we brought his attention to what Officer T. was doing: 1) punishing a young man who had cut ahead in line by detaining him, 2) insisting that a long line of people who were walking through the checkpoint from the south toward Nablus go back 300 meters and retrace their steps but this time on the inside of the fence instead of the road side of the fence. The reason being that it is forbidden to walk on the road. This long line of men and women dressed in holiday clothes were forced to go all the way back to the intersection (if they found a whole in the barrier for a short cut they were stopped and told to go all the way back) in order to enter from the “correct” side.A. told us that the Brigade Commander decided on this new regulation and that T. was just trying to get the Palestinians use to it. This new regulation is being enforced because the settlers complained that the Palestinians curse at them on the road when they get close to them and therefore there must be a fence seperating them. At the beginning of the path there are red arrows painted on a sign to show the correct entrance. I responded that this was not the way to introduce a new regulation. Why weren’t there signs in Arabic that would explain the new ruling. A. says that in about a month and a half the thistle field on the east side of the checkpoint will be the new place for taxicabs. Then there will be no friction.Captain A.’s phone number is with me.The Battalion Commander A. is with me.In my opinion one should use one’s discretion when using these numbers. We called at 5:15 to request he release a young man who was being detaneed as a punishment for having said “kusamak”(a curse word) while waiting on line. A. asked the officer who was just coming to replace T. to release the detainee. T. seemed to object so we decided to leave so he’d feel easier about releasing the detainee without losing face. There was a less tense atmosphere at the checkpoint. The soldiers, perhaps due to A.’s presence ,were for the most part straight foward and efficent.Deborah spent most of the shift observing the line of vehicles leaving Nablus. A bus would typically have to wait about an hour and a half to get to the front of the line. Then once at the front, the actual checking of the buses meant that everyone(including young children) was taken off the buses to stand in the heat and direct sun for anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes. The bus had to be examined, IDs of each person checked, hand bags and the larger pieces of luggage had to be dragged to the x-ray machine and back again. Some examples of how long the actual check took (not including the long wait on line) were as follows: from 2:52PM till 3:13PM, from 3:13PM till 3:30PM, from 3:32PM till 3:48PM, and from 3:48 till 4:00PM.From time to time an additional line would be opened by O. from the Matak. He would usually take only the smaller vehicles . When he did check a bus it took about 5 minutes. He said he knew what to look for. At 4:00PM vehicle traffic lightened up and moved faster. There were less buses. The line of vehicles coming into Nablus moved fast and even when there were 14 vehicles on line it only took 5 minutes until they passed through.4:15PM Beit Furik: The checkpoint was almost empty . We were told by the soldiers and the drivers themselves that cars and taxicabs from Beit Furik have been allowed to pass through the checkpoint in both directions for the last 3 weeks. One driver told us it was because MW women spoke to the DCO and the soldeirs at the checkpoint. COULD THAT BE THE REASON???5:00PM Return to Hawarre: At the intersection between North and South Hawarre police jeep #22766 stood and checked randomly the IDs of young men either going to or coming from Nablus. If the person he had marked to be checked didn’t notice by eye contact he would beep his horn to get his attention. When questioned by us as to what he was doing he said he had the right to check any one he wanted.5:30PM We left. At Tapuach there were 2 cars going southward and 4 cars coming from the east.