Beit Iba
BEIT IBA, Monday 25 April 2005 AMObservers: Herzliya A., Rachel A. (reporting)Guest: Talia (photographer) colour=red>07:30 – On the way to Beit Iba we passed Shavei Shomron. It was completely deserted. At Beit Iba, this was a “normal” day. There was considerable pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Passage was easy, without delays, and there were no detainees. The soldiers seemed to be looking for some occupation and found it in opposing our presence there. One of them ordered us to stand further away (10 metres from the checking area). We did not respond. Herzliya went over to the checking position from Qusin and another soldier called the police, telling them that the Machsomwatch women were wandering around a prohibited area. A policeman from Qedumim appeared after some time and it was clear to him that he’d been called out for nothing.One of the soldiers said he wanted to understand us and a dialogue ensued. He told me we didn’t really known what went on at the checkpoint. The real events, he said, were 100 metres away in the Nablus direction where stones and other objects got thrown at soldiers.We stayed about an hour. Everything seemed to be working, but we knew, when we left, that all this could change in a second.
Beit Iba
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A perimeter checkpoint west of the city of Nablus. Operated from 2001 to 2009 as one of the four permanent checkpoints closing on Nablus: Beit Furik and Awarta to the east and Hawara to the south. A pedestrian-only checkpoint, where MachsomWatch volunteers were present daily for several hours in the morning and afternoon to document the thousands of Palestinians waiting for hours in long queues with no shelter in the heat or rain, to leave the district city for anywhere else in the West Bank. From March 2009, as part of the easing of the Palestinian movement in the West Bank, it was abolished, without a trace, and without any adverse change in the security situation.
Jun-4-2014Beit-Iba checkpoint 22.04.04
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