Beit Furik, Huwwara, Za'tara (Tapuah), Wed 5.11.08, Morning

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Observers: 
Dalia W., Nurit W'-L' (reporting)
Nov-5-2008
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Morning
Seriously? Does this make us safer?

Translation: HannaK.

Summary:
Settlers abuse Palestinian driver in Beit Furik. Boublil at the Huwwara CP. Detention of many young men for interrogation at Huwwara.

07:10 Zatara-Tapuah
7 cars from the west, 12 from the north, but the traffic flows.

07:20 Beit Furik
When we arrived there were three vehicles waiting at the parking lot. At the CP the pedestrians traffic was relatively lively, but there were no delays.
A transportation bus stops in front of the CP. Its passengers descend - first boys then girls. Some look like schoolchildren, others like students. The DCO representative organizes the pedestrians' traffic aggressively and efficiently (it is strange to see him on the spot at that hour, later it transpired why). He lets the girls pass first, then the boys. In a short while the CP is emptied out.
A car driven by an elderly man arrives from the direction of Beit Furik. Also in the car is his elderly wife and a young girl (probably their daughter). The elderly couple is asked to leave the car and pass at the CP. The young girl on whose name, so it seems, the car is registered, takes the wheel in her father's stead and continues driving to the other side of the CP.
07:35 The soldier responsible for the vehicle queue takes a two minute smoking break. Opposite him the Palestinian waits (patiently?) in his car.
07:40 The CP is empty.
07:45 The first vehicle coming from Nablus is being passed.
At the parking lot 5-7 cars wait alternately. The owner of the booth tells us that in the early hours of the morning (before or just after the opening of the CP - 05:00) a car of settles arrived. They descended from the car and began cursing the Palestinian drivers and teasing them. A commotion began. When the Palestinians called the soldiers, they entered their car and disappeared. This is the reason for the presence of the DCO representative at the CP.
 
08:10 Huwwara
A great number of people passing at the CP, relatively to this early morning hour.Two girl-soldiers man the checking-stations. Both of them scream rudely (at first we thought that is was only one of them, L., at the Western station) and continuously. Amongst the other roars:
"Here is Yossi Boublil", "Yalla, up with you", "Doesn't he resemble Boublil?", "come come"' "come you man, come", "how does one say tomato in Arabic?", "you head of bandore (tomato)" (it is not clear whether this is intended to a Palestinian or to one of the soldiers), "Come hither, come come" (what happened that she uses good Hebrew???) and at the top of their voices a few times: "Yaniv, do you want more?"  and this refers to the central event that takes place this morning at the CP -" recruitment day".
Every few minutes a few young men are sent  to the concrete barricades of the vehicle queues, are detained there and await to be summoned to behind the toilets. All the time of our stay at the CP there were 6-8 young men waiting. Most of them are released after ten minutes, and in rare cases are being interrogated. The "recruitment" to collaborate with the authorities.
09:00 The rude roars of the girl soldiers don't cease, a shame for the army and after many efforts (which lasted this time much too long) to summon the CP commander, we succeed in talking with the DCO representative. Obviously their behaviour does bother him too, but neither he nor the CP commander who promised to come up to us but didn't,  lift a finger until we protest. We explicitly informed him that we would write about the rude behavior of L. and of the other one, and demanded that they be immediately silenced. This does indeed help, he acts quickly, and from that moment until we leave there is relative quiet at the CP, but not before the last accord:
08:55 A taxi driver who refused twice to move away from the place where he had parked his car, north of the CP under the tower, is detained at the initiative of the DCO man and led to the cell. He refuses at first to enter it and a loud dialogue, bordering on violence, ensues. At the end he gives up and is put into the cell. Even before he arrives at the vicinity of the cell the girl soldier at the middle checking stations screams triumphantly: dry him out the whole day, till night".
We shall not repeat here the murmurs of the humiliated Palestinians who left the checking are.
Again we call the DCO man and ask him, in view of all the past even, not to judge too severely, as it is forbidden to punish! He promises.
Apart from all that there was a medium traffic of vehicles all along our shift, some cars that came from Nablus were checked for a long time (10-15 minutes). One taxi that came from the south was not allowed to enter.
For some reason the parking lot is not as crowded as usual.
10:10 There are no more detaineesinfo-icon for interrogation. The DCO man went to release the driver.

Tapuah/Za'tara - there are 12 cars waiting in the queue.