Huwwara Beit Furik Za’atara Junc. Awarta, Monday 14.8.2006 PMWatchers: Macky S. Meirav A. (reporting)Natanya translating.There are new soldiers at the Nablus checkpoint who only came on duty three days ago and are still learning the work. And of course this is on the back of the Palestinians. At Hawarra they are once more “improving” the checkpoint. At Beit Furik the soldiers work slowly and people wait for an hour to an hour and a half and cars from 3-5 hours.13.45 The gate of Marda and Zeita are open.13.50 Checkpiont at crossroads of Za’tara where there are 11 cars from the west and 20 from the north. There is segregation because of an alert and people from Jenin are not allowed through and also men from Tulkarm and Nablus between the ages of 16-30 are not allowed to pass.On the northern side of the crossroads there is a new procedure. Bus passengers alight for their ids to be checked and after this 7 men are kept outside the bus. They are from Tulkarm and not allowed to pass. They tell us that they are students on their way to sign up for the new years at the university of Bir Zeit. The soldier says that they should try to bypass the checkpoint and go through the hills. He cannot let them through. This is not the first time that soldiers have suggested something like this.On the northern side of the crossroads stand a couple who had arrive on foot. Their home is not far off and they want to continue but the soldiers will not allow them to cross over on foot. They stand angrily in the sun until a truck driver gives them a lift.14.15 Checkpiont Burin. No soldiers on the Za’atra-Hawarra road, two soldiers at a rolling checkpoint in the direction of Jit but the area is empty.14.20 Huwwarra. 11 cars wait to enter Nablus and more than 10 waiting to leave. We saw one car which stood an hour without advancing because of the sluggish checking and also because of ambulances and other cars which had priority. The commander, second lieutenant Asher says that there is complete segregation on Jenin and men from Tulkarm 16-30 years of age. Everyone else can pass.On the path leading into Nablus are two soldiers who are checking and there is a line of about 50 people. The commander later tells us that there was a hot alert that someone would try to enter the city with a large sum of money to buy weapons. But the entire time that we were there no one was found but because of this rumour people stood a long time in the sun.There are a couple of 100s of people waiting to exit Nablus. To create efficiency the women have been separated from the older men and are checked outside the hut on the path which some months ago was used by those entering Nablus. This may lead to more efficiency as the women waited from 10-30 minutes but on the other hand they were exposed to the sun and crowded together. The commander said that in a few days a hut would be built there too.15.30 Beit Furik. About 10 cars waiting in each direction and the drivers say that they wait from 3-5 hours. About 150 people waiting in line to leave Nablus and the checking is very slow and it is clear that the soldiers do not know exactly what to do. A while after we arrived the shift was changed and this took about half an hour to do while they discussed the history of the checkpoints. And in all this time the checking came practically to a standstill.Only people from Beit Dej’an and Beit Furik are allowed to pass freely. Also people from surrounding villages except for men from 16-30 years of age are allowed to pass. A couple arrive. He is from Beit Furik but in her id it is written that she is from Nablus. They say that they have only shortly been married and she has not had time to change her address. But the soldiers will not let them pass. They tell them to go through Hawarra but from Hawarra they cannot get to Beit Furik. This does not convince the soldiers. They despair and go back to Nablus. When we try to explain the lack of logic in this to the soldier he says he does not make the orders , they are only small screws and that “there are many grave things in our country and this is not the worse of them.” Depends for whom.A group of older men are waiting to be checked at the entrance to Nablus but there is only one soldier and he is checking those leaving. After they had waited for 40 minutes he turns to them and this causes the other line to be more pressured. People in the line ask for water and when we turn to the soldiers they look at us as if we are crazy. We phone the humanitarian centre to send through a request to the District Commissioner’s Office to send a representative to help but the entire time that we were there he did not arrive. When we spoke to the captain of the DCO at Hawarra about the problem at Beit Furik he said that there is a lack of captains at the DCO,. One of them is on leave and the other will only start to work the next day.One of the men who had gone through in the morning said that he had heard the soldiers conspiring amongst themselves to work more slowly when they saw the morning shift arriving.16.30 Awarta. 10 trucks waiting to enter and the checking is comparatively slow. The drivers say they have been waiting from 30 minutes to an hour.16.45 Checkpint of Awarta. Still great pressure of pedestrians. Three families from east Jerusalem stand at the checkpoint with a baby and small children. The commander has taken their ids and they are waiting for the blue police. He does not care that until now people from east Jerusalem have been allowed to leave Nablus feely. “The orders changed two hours ago.” Also he is not interested in the fact that these people could not know this and no one had warned them when they entered the city. After they had waited for over an hour he allowed them to go.In the isolation cell behind the checking area of the women is one detainee. The representative of the DCO says that he “went wild”. The man is going wild and banging on the door and the soldiers bang too and tell him to shut up. They promise us that when he calms down they will let him go but it does not seem as if our presence is calming him down and when we left he was still there.17.20 Checkpiont Burin. It is still working on the road in the direction of Jit and there is one car in line.17.30 Checkpoint Za’atra. 5 cars from the north, 8 from the west.