There was this checkpoint inside Nablus itself; this road that connected Beit Furiq with other villages east of Nablus. We'd give them a hell of a time there. It was a checkpoint where we would detain whoever we felt like it, chase "leakers". That was what we did at that checkpoint.

By definition? Someone told you: this is where you detain people?It was a checkpoint. You had to check anyone going through to make sure there were no wanted persons and such. There were no instructions to detain, I think, not from the upper echelons. By order of the company commander we had to detain whoever tried to run away, anyone whose IDs we needed to clear with the police. We would pass on the details to the police, to our war-room, our war-room would pass them on to the battalion war-room, from there to the Security Services or the police. Until they'd get back to us it would take about 20-30 minutes for every number we passed on to them. With all the communications hitches and rain and sun and all, they were held up for quite a while. Whoever got rude in the meantime, or raised his voice, or just got on our nerves for some reason, we'd button him up, meaning we'd shackle him.

Shackle and blindfold him?Shackle him. Blindfolding would only be for cases where they really went overboard. We'd make them kneel, dry them out.

For how long?It could go up to eight or nine hours. Until we'd get tired of it. Then when we changed guards we'd instruct the shift replacing us to leave him there for at least another two hours. "This guy is really rude", or, "That guy, let him go soon, he's not guilty". Stuff like that. That's how it worked, essentially.