Nablus

Observers; H. B., H. H., V. B., two BBC
journalists,

Bet Furiq: Everybody seemed to be let through the CP, but the ID
checkup was slow; only two soldiers (reasonably civil), one for the
men's queue, another for women's. At some point the men's queue
(which was moving more slowly) was more than 100 people long. H.'s
efforts to call for reinforcements to speed up the things were
unsuccessful. At some point the two soldiers closed the roadblock
and went hunting for people up the slope of the mountain. Everybody
was watching, they came back empty-handed.

A Palestinian from Bet Furiq who works in Nablus said he spends
four hours a day at this CP - two in the morning, two on the way
back. A truck with flour arrived heading towards Nablus, H. talked
to the soldiers on behalf of the driver. First she was refused, on
the grounds that "this is a breathing closure [whatever that
means], and what they need flour for anyway?" But finally the
truck was let through, and then it stalled - smack in the middle of
the CP! The moment was tense, with the driver trying frantically to
get the engine going; finally he was pushed by another truck,
managed to turn on the engine and drove away.

Huwwara: Rather messy, with people pushing from all directions.
Women were let through, but for men, the 16-35 age limit was
enforced quite strictly. Some "wrong-aged" men with
Nablus IDs wanted to go home; a long-haired officer with a
pony-tail (DCO) first refused, but finally let them in. Another
officer was yelling aggressively and pushing people around. Medical
appointments did not help any more "If you are sick, get an
ambulance, only sick people in ambulances are allowed to
pass". People tried to explain that they are too poor to
afford an ambulance. Soldiers told us "they have clinics in
their villages". A group of detained was waiting for IDs for
1-3 hours(?), finally released except for two men. The nerves of
one of them were on the verge of snapping, he kept approaching the
soldiers and yelling, we tried to

calm him down, and at the same time H. toiled on extracting ASAP
his Jordanian passport from a stony-faced military character;
blissfully the detained was released before he went crazy. An
unpleasant bespectacled officer tried to forbid us to stand near
the Palestinians "for our own safety". We learned that
these soldiers share their time between Har Brakha and the
roadblock.

Huwwara North - a shorter queue; here the soldiers ordered me off -
"Area A"! Meanwhile I learned that in addition to the
Work Permit one needs a Permit to Pass the Roadblock. Young
soldiers were into carrying out the orders to the letter; but I
overheard them pointing out to each other the irregularities of the
famous Ofer the Volunteer; apparently he was there, doing what he
can.

Sarrah: An amazingly large group of soldiers, considering the
relative emptiness of the place

and the short-staffed CP at Bet Furiq. Several women students were
detained for an ID checkup, as well as several men; the soldiers
admitted that the detained waited for a long time; we were told
that the soldier with the IDs was busy with a chase (apparently,
some woman managed to enter illicitly the village?); but he will be
back soon to return the IDs. The IDs were returned within some 15
minutes. Age limit was enforced, as in Huwwara. We were asked by
the soldiers "aren't you afraid" and had trouble shaking
off a military vehicle escort, while we walked downhill towards the
transit at the iron gate.

Tapuah junction, seen on the way there and back: slow but moving.
The visible personnel included, in addition to soldiers, two large
guys in paramilitary clothes, with large guns, who described
themselves as "private security". They just stood at the
junction.