BEIT IBA, Saturday 15 May 2004 AM Observers: Nurit L., Hedva, Victoria, and Vivi Z. (reporting) colour =red> The crowd of waiting students were complaining bitterly about the long time it took to go through the checkpoint, about the examinations they were being forced to miss by arriving late, etc. etc. Apparently, while new buses arrived at the checkpoint, the queue was somehow worked through. The reservist soldiers took action which did not look pretty, but nevertheless kept things kept moving forward. Two soldiers held the crowd back from approaching the actual checking position, while an officer picked out a few people at a time, and sent them towards the soldiers who checked ID cards and bags. The “famous” captain O. reigned supreme at the queue for women and sick people and he very efficiently pushed through quite a few “humanitarian” cases. We have seen worse days at Beit Iba, although some furious detained students told us they had been stuck there since the checkpoint had opened early in the morning. We gathered from O.’s parting speech (as he returned the ID cards to the detainees at 10:15) that this was how he had punished them for what he saw as their “unruly behaviour” in the special student queue. The students have a major problem, since they are obliged to pay again for a course they have already taken if they miss the exams for that course. They claim that the administrative heads of the various universities and institutions of tertiary education show no consideration for the time lost at the checkpoints: money from fees is what matters first and foremost. It was sad to see former parachutists who are now in the reserves chasing a donkey or poking around the insides of an oil can carried by an old woman…and these are men who have surely been through the Goa experience, who are at university or have already graduated , and perhaps have already married and become parents. There were unannounced roadblocks along Route 60, with about 15 vehicles held up near Tel Zion, and another 40 vehicles, including minibuses and buses, near As-Sawiya. We also noticed some striking advertisements for new [Israeli] settler housing at Adam: “New Adam”, “Green Adam”, “Rustic Adam”… Tapuah junction checkpoint was quite empty. The settlers’ posters that have “decorated” the checkpoint during the last several weeks, ” The Laws of the Torah Take Precedence Over the Laws of Man”, have disappeared.