Beit Iba 3/3/2004 Watchers: Hannah, Shalva, Michal, Nava, Dafna, Irit N., Yoram and Danny (film crew) and a Canadian cameraman An oppressively hot day. In summary: some technical improvements in the operation of a system that would be the better for ceasing to exist.13:10. Suddenly there is a checkpoint at the entrance to Ramat Gil’ad. There is very little traffic, and most of that is private cars. We stopped and immediately, as if this were some comic film, the soldiers signalled all cars to move on while they themselves jumped into their jeep, drove off, and the checkpoint vanished. But on the way back home, there it was again. 13:35, Beit Iba. Students are allowed through on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but… On Wednesdays they can go through the checkpoint only if they are coming from Nablus and not towards the city. There are about 80 people crowded together at the eastern end of the checkpoint, i.e. for those coming from the Nablus direction — facing them was just one man who each time signalled two of them to approach. This was Major O. we learned , although the soldiers refused to speak to us or even tell us the name of their officer. After we got there, accompanied by a television team (that does miracles to change behaviour patterns at a checkpoint), two other soldiers joined O and the mass of human being began to move quickly and with some politeness from the soldiers (“Help that old lady!” O. told Dafna.)There were some 10 or so detainees standing off to the side under the brutal sun. Four of them were 18-year-olds from the nearby village caught trying to by-pass the checkpoint by walking over the hillside. They had already been there for some two hours. When we asked what was happening with them, the officer, second lieutenant N., told us that they would be held for the full four hours that he is permitted to detain them, as a punishment. Our pleas that he take the heat into consideration went unheeded. We asked O. to deal with the detainees and he did so charmingly, talking Arabic and showing a sense of humour, some of them he even let go (i.e. he gave them back their identity documents) after a “talking to”, and of course he was the star of the TV scenes shot at that point. Off camera, when we tried to pressure him about the others, we got the answer: “All in good time, slowly, slowly!” 14:30, Shavei Shomron. We split up, with some of us going to Shavei Shomron where there was no traffic at all. Later, the occasional car went through every few minutes all of them being checked in a very cursory fashion before being waved on. We tried to help a teacher whose car had been confiscated 13 days ago, and who was due to get it back tomorrow. Meanwhile his wife had given birth and he wanted to get the car back a day early so that he could take her and the infant home from Nablus. The soldiers here were moderately hostile, making all the usual claims: that this was a closed military area, that filming was forbidden. We calmed them down and said it wasn’t and we were not going away, and filming was allowed. They wouldn’t let us talk to their officer (said he was attending a briefing) to plead the cause of the new father who stood at the side, waiting. At 15:20, lieutenant S. arrived on the scene. He was business-like and had the car released immediately, even agreeing to write a chit that permitted the driver to drive around for that day without licence plates (they had somehow disappeared from the car while it was in the lot where the confiscated cars are kept!). For our part, we reported the whole story to the emergency centre so that the driver could contact us for help if he got into trouble for not having them. Meanwhile back at Beit Iba, 15:00. Tremendous build up of pressure as hundreds milled around wanting to go in the direction of Nablus. It was unbearably hot, and the tension was growing as the soldiers shouted and pushed the people back again. There was a sense of panic in the air. Perhaps our intervention helped, for some more soldiers appeared, the tension relaxed and they began moving people through much more rapidly. There were 20 detainees standing at the side. At one point, an irritated soldier who wanted to demarcate exactly where they were allowed to stand, hurled a concrete block onto the ground in a very threatening way. 15:45. The women of Beit Iba came out of the village and were halted by a sudden checkpoint set up at the turn from Deir Sharaf to Shavei Shomron: that is to say, a kilometre and a half from the checkpoint where everyone gets checked at Beit Iba, they were taken off the buses, together with all their belongings, and checked in orderly lines — one for men, another for women — and only then permitted to re-board and proceed on their way. 16:00. The group that had been at Shavei Shomron joined us again at the sudden checkpoint. By now there were 6 buses waiting in line and only three soldiers operating the checkpoint. Every now and then an army car with soldiers aboard swept past. A check at the army’s Humanitarian Centre elicited the information that there were serious warnings of an impending terror attack affecting the entire area and that’s the way it will be all day, there is nothing to be done about it… We stayed on to watch the checking and the clearing of the buses as they were allowed to go on their way. Perhaps our intervention helped in the case of a young man, who had had his documents confiscated apparently because he had been “cheeky” to a soldier; he got them back after a quarter of an hour, and he and his panicked girl friend got on the next bus to Tulkarm. 17:20. En route home, there was a sudden checkpoint at Jit — buses and large Transit taxis full of people. We stopped. Three buses — everyone made to get out, packages and all, everything checked and off they go. This time the bus had set out from Ramallah for Tulkarm. 17:30. A group of people arrived after a visit to the DCO in Kedumim. Some had set out in the morning from Tulkarm, and because of the checkpoints had arrived there late. They had then waited all the rest of the day and still not received the permits they needed. Instead, they had been told to come next week. “A day in the life of…”