Nivin al-Qadumi, age 23, resident of Nablus.

I live in a-Yamsin, a neighborhood in the Old City of Nablus, and am a second-year business administration student at a-Najah University, in Nablus. I also volunteer at the The Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees in the city.

Last Thursday [11 December], at about 9:00 A.M., I went to Qalqiliya to visit an aunt of mine who has a heart condition. On the way, I was surprised to see that the soldiers were not checking or searching cars and taxis wanting to cross. That was the case at a few checkpoints between Nablus and Qalqiliya - such as at Sarra, Qalqiliya, and al-Juneid. Letting them cross like that was unusual.

The next day, around 8:20 A.M., I left my aunt's house and started back to Nablus, to get to a 9:30 class at the university. I went by taxi to the Qalqiliya checkpoint, a trip that took about ten minutes. At the checkpoint, I saw more than a hundred people waiting in two lines, one for women and the other for men. I joined the women's line and waited for my turn. One by one, we went over to a soldier at the checkpoint, who checked the identity cards and said, in English, "Go."

I waited about an hour and a quarter before my turn came. The soldier, who was about five meters from me, called to me: "Come here." I went over to him, and he said to me, in Arabic: "Go back, you are forbidden to cross." I asked him why, and he said to me, in English: "Nobody is allowed to cross today. Go back, bring a permit, and then I'll let you cross." In Arabic, I replied: "I am from Nablus and I have a card showing that I am a volunteer for a medical organization." He replied, in English: "Go back, go back. Those are the orders. We are not allowed to disobey the orders. Bring a permit." The soldier was about 1.80 meters tall, light-skinned, and had blue eyes. He was a bit overweight, and I blond hair, I think. He had helmet on. The other soldier, who checked the ID cards of the people in the other line, was tall and dark-skinned.

The soldier did not let me cross, so I took a taxi and returned to my aunt's house. When I arrived, at 10:00, I called the Palestinian District Coordination Office and told them that I was from Nablus and needed to get home, and that the soldiers at the checkpoint wouldn't let me cross. The official who answered the phone took my personal details and said that he would try to help me. About fifteen minutes later, he called me and said that I could pass. I got into a taxi and went back to the checkpoint. The people who were waiting earlier were gone. Four male soldiers and one female soldier were at the checkpoint. The female soldier was dark-skinned and had curly hair. She told me, in Arabic, "Go," and motioned me to go back. I thought that she wanted me to go through the metal detector. When I went through, the device sounded and I stopped. She motioned me to open my bag and the plastic bag I had in my hand. She checked them and motioned me to go ahead and cross.

I took a taxi from the checkpoint to al-Funduq, where I took another taxi, which dropped me off in Sarra. Three male soldiers and two female soldiers wee standing at the Sarra checkpoint. There were also two other soldiers, one on each side of the road. Lots of people were waiting to cross, more than 300 it seemed to me, most of them students on their way to a-Najah University. The soldiers only let residents of Nablus cross, which drove many of the women [who were not from Nablus] to tears because they couldn't get to their final exam. Having a student card did not help.

Five minutes after I arrived, one of the soldiers motioned to us to sit down and said, in Arabic: "Sit on the ground." I was surprised that he spoke Arabic. He was short, about 1.60 meters tall, and was light-skinned. We sat on the ground. It was very cold that day, and it was pretty high where we were. We spoke among ourselves about the suffering and incidents that take place at checkpoints.

About an hour later, one of the soldiers went over to a group of young people and asked them, in Arabic, if they had a cigarette. One fellow in the group said that he did. The soldier asked what kind, and the guy said "Marlboro." Another fellow in the group translated. The soldier said to the guy with the cigarette: "Come here." One of the two soldiers who were standing on the side of the road asked the soldier who asked for the cigarette where he was going. The soldier said that he was going to search the bag of the fellow with the cigarette. The soldiers spoke in Hebrew, and the translator translated the conversation. The fellow gave a cigarette to the soldier, and the soldier said to the other soldiers, "Let him cross." The soldiers checked his ID card and let him cross. He was the only person to cross. About ten minutes after that, an army jeep pulled up. The soldiers went over to the jeep and ate lunch. They stood next to the jeep - eating, talking, and laughing. We continued to wait.

After sitting there for two and a half hours, one of the soldiers said to us, in Arabic: "Go to the Beit Iba checkpoint. It is forbidden to cross here." We couldn't believe that we had been kept waiting there for all that time and would not be allowed to cross. I went over to one of the female soldiers and told her, in Arabic, that I was from Nablus and wanted to cross. She had long, blond, slightly curly hair. Another soldier translated what I said and asked me: "Where were you?" I told him that I had been in Sarra doing medical work. I made that up, because I had a volunteer's card.

The soldier checked my ID card and my volunteer's card, and let me pass. Nobody else crossed with me. At 2:00 P.M., I reached home. I was a total wreck, my head was spinning, and my back hurt. My family was waiting for me. I couldn't talk, I was so tired, and I fell asleep. I slept until the next morning.

Nivin Ibrahim al-Qadumi, age 23, is a student and a resident of Nablus. The testimony was taken by Salma a-Deb'i, in Nablus, on 18 December 2003.