BEIT IBA, Monday 26 April 2004 PMObservers: Ruti K., Dina M., Maya K. (reporting) colour=red>On the way to Beit Iba, close to the Bar-On industrial zone, a tire on our driver N.’s van was punctured. Since he didn’t have a jack, we decided to hitch-hike to the checkpoint, which we did with two rides: the first – in a Palestinian ambulance, the second – in a van driven by a man from Qalqiliya, father of six, a carrier, who said he knew us from the checkpoint. Ruti and Dina shared a seat with a large radio. On our way we passed the Qalqiliya checkpoint. It is active again, and the traffic was moving properly (we were not delayed).RoadblocksWe encountered the following : at the Jitt junction, on the road facing the Gilad farm, and at the Deir Sharaf junction.SarraThe road block here was manned by two soldiers. There were no pedestrians. As for trucks bringing building materials into the village: the contents of those with Israeli licence plates were transferred to a Palestinian truck east of the village.Beit Iba: Generally, the problems remain the same. Luckily for us, N., of the army’s District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that deals with civilian matters] was there and matter-of-factly solved every problem that arose. He treated the Palestinians courteously. At any given time there were some 10-15 detainees. At least while we were there, they didn’t wait more than one hour, although according to some of them they had been there since 09:00 (five or six hours). N. claimed that this was impossible, because he had released all of them from time to time, and, while he was there, this was so.We met a woman with a Spanish passport who had come to the checkpoint with two children and her mother-in-law, who had a Palestinian passport. The woman lives with her Palestinian husband in Tulkarm. The soldiers wouldn’t let her out of Nablus to Tulkarm because they claimed her visa had expired (what had apparently expired was her passport). On the intervention of the Spanish consul in Jerusalem ( whom the woman contacted) she was eventually released, but not before two Israeli policemen wanted “to teach her a lesson” by making her “stay here with us a little.” An old man, accompanied by two grown grandchildren, sought to return from medical treatment in Nablus to his home to Deir Sharaf. But , according to his passport, he was a resident of Jericho, where he apparently also owns a house. He was detained because his grandchildren were “the wrong age” [Palestinian men aged between 16 and 35 are subject to stringent checks against Shin Bet –Israel security service — lists when they go through checkpoints]. N. organized an ambulance to take him home, the grandchildren stayed behind and were released in the course of the next hour.Two medical cases were detained. One needed weekly treatment in Nablus. We gave N. his details in the hope that in future weeks the soldiers will recognize him and not detain him.And as usual: many students were detained. Some because they were trying to go through the checkpoint on “the wrong day” [the Palestinian university week runs generally speaking from Saturday to Wednesday, and on both these days passage through the checkpoints is largely eased for them]; these were mainly students from el-Kuds University (which they call “the Open University”) where studies take place only on one or two days a week; and others were young people whose documents were checked against Shin Bet lists.