BEIT FURIK and BEIT IBA, Saturday 24 April 2004 AMObservers: Angela G., Victoria B., Hava H. (reporting) color = red>Like everyone else, we witnessed an increase in harassment and oppression.On the way from Jerusalem to Nablus, on Highway 60, there were three unannounced road blocks, one at Sha’ar Binyamin [Jewish Israeli industrial area], one at Ofra [Jewish settlement] and one at As-Sawiya, each with dozens of vehicles waiting . On our way back to Jerusalem, the road block at the As-Sawiya junction was empty and that at Ofra had disappeared. But at Sha’ar Binyamin some 140 vehicles were waiting, and drivers stuck there on their way south to Ramallah and Jerusalem, for example, reported a wait of two hours. There was no response from N., the Binyamin brigade commander’s assistant, and telephone calls to the brigade elicited the usual response about hold-ups being caused by red alerts and a shortage of manpower.The soldiers explained that there was no movement of trucks out of Nablus . Red alerts! Pedestrians, barring restrictions on certain age groups, were going through the checkpoints in an acceptable fashion. Men under 35 had to present permits. Those waiting in line told us about increasing harassment (it’s better when you’re around, they said). On Thursday, they said, a large crowd had collected at the checkpoint and even people with permits were sent back. Recently a big group of wedding guests had arrived there a few minutes after 19:00 [when the checkpoint closes], several minutes late; the soldier on duty refused to let them through and thus they were forced to go through the hills [ by-passing the checkpoint] under cover of darkness.The main roads linking villages in the Nablus area are blocked and anyone wanting to move from place to place must use the transport which moves on the several by-roads which are still open. This of course entails additional outlay, because vehicles used must be capable of driving through the hills. And we saw for ourselves how they are hunted down by the army.The Maraqa dirt-track is the only way to get from the Beit Furik checkpoint to Jenin but there is no guarantee that it can be negotiated . After climbing twelve kms. in a minibus there is a significant prospect of being apprehended at one of the unannounced road blocks and sent back the way one has come. Should we try to get there?09:20 — Jitt junction – the junction of highways 60 and 55About 80 detainees, all men, most of them students, were sitting at the roadside. The soldiers had taken them off buses for security checks and they had been waiting for hours for their documents to be returned. The soldier on guard treated them in a friendly fashion but forced them to sit on the ground. One of them asked to be allowed to go off and relieve himself.Shortly after our arrival a large group was released, but new detainees were added. When we returned from Beit Iba after 11:00, the Centre for the Rights of the Individual was still trying to obtain their release (we distributed cards with help telephone numbers to the detainees ). One of the soldiers tried to prevent them from using a mobile phone. The commander claimed that he could do nothing to speed up the check and a telephone call to the DCO brought no results: “Let them wait.” The students who were released had no transport but the group going towards the Beit Iba checkpoint was lucky in being able to board a passing bus.10: 30 — Beit IbaWomen went through the checkpoint quickly with the help of S. the DCO representative there, who also expedited the passage of trucks on their way to Nablus. Otherwise , he was very tough. Every Palestinian with a medical document was a liar, the permits and doctors’ letters were forged and he did nothing to speed up the release of the detainees (some of them on their way home after medical treatment at the Nablus hospital). He firmly believes that: “anyone who’s really sick travels by ambulance.” One of them, it turned out, was a man under a Shin Bet banning order and S. had a field day: You see!Only empty trucks were allowed to leave Nablus, entry into the town was only for trucks returning to it with permits. All of this, we were told, was because of terror attack alerts prior to Independence Day. .