Beit Iba, Sunday, 19.02.06, PM Observers: Aliya S., Nur B., Susan L. (reporting)Summary: Today is the day after the Hamas-led Palestinian parliament took office. Our newspapers have already told us that ties with the Palestinian Authority “will be reduced” as of Sunday. How Israel is responding to Hamas electoral victory is made eminently clear in today’s shift. The concept of “pressure” becomes clearly defined and understood, since its manifestation is all around us. “Pressure… the application of continuous force by one body on another; an oppressive condition of physical, mental social or economic distress.”Shavei ShomronFor anybody who’s not been to this former checkpoint lately, it’s worth noting the new “separation barrier” going up around the settlement. It is built right against Route 60, eating up many dunams of Palestinian olive groves and terracing, and its high, foreboding grey concrete looks as if it’s built to last forever (but we all know the story of everlasting walls). We can’t even get near the settlement gate or the checkpoint as building vehicles fill up the roadway: work is in full progress. On our way back to Deir Sharaf, an ambulance does pass, but we don’t know how it managed to get by.Beit Iba16:00 — for the first time in our recollection, the Hawwash carpentry brothers comment on the situation. During the night, in Nablus, there was shooting, a tremendous racket for five hours, two people killed. It was dreadful, Balata, yes, although later on, as their father passed through the checkpoint on his way home, he commented, “Not everywhere, just Balata.”Besides feeling squeezed by brute physical force, the brothers are also feeling relentless pressure from other harsh realities of the occupation. For the first time, they ask us a favor, having to do with one of them, married with two children, being refused, for the third time, a magnetic card by the Huwwara DCO. We promise to look into this.At Beit Iba, the second kiosk has reopened but, besides the usual herd of taxis hawking their rides, there are only a few people, mainly students, hugging textbooks, passing through the checkpoint and even fewer vehicles. The soldiers on duty have no interest, or maybe permission to greet us, but they engage in loud singing and guffawing. After all, the occupation is a huge joke….Jit/Sarra Junction16:45 – there are both a blue police car at the end of the line of waiting vehicles and a jeep at the head of the rolling checkpoint, settler cars whizzing by. There is one soldier behind a concrete boulder, and three others. We park opposite and approach the checking soldiers only to be told, by two soldiers, more or less in unison, that we can’t stand there. On being asked who’s in charge, one answers, and the other, regretfully, is disabused of his power over us! Just then, another soldier comes up to the one in charge and, so that we can clearly hear, demands to know why a mini van is being held at the side of the road. Immediately after, its IDs are returned, and it’s on its way.We move back to the other side of the roadway, find our own conveniently placed concrete boulder and stand there, observing the soldiers from afar. There are three or four cars waiting to be checked, one mini van full of women, who are made to disembark. They are soon on their way.17:15 — it’s getting cold, the soldier behind the concrete boulder throws his mates extra wraps. IDs continue to be checked against the paper list of numbers, the police jeep moves to the head of the line, then drives off. Soon, there are no more waiting cars, the soldiers begin to josh each other, fool around, so it’s time to leave.