Anabta and Jubara, Monday PM, 3 April 2006 Watchers: Yona A., Tziona S. (reporting) A checkpoint on road 60: Madir Asharf junction towards Anabta. 17:00 – 12 vehicles waiting to be checked, amongst them buses whose passengershave been set down. Some of the passengers have arrived from Ramallah, but others only just left Beit Iba after a wait of an hour and more at the checkpoint there. The waiting time here is about an hour. On the roadside in the direction of Anabta there are military vehicles stationed, huge beast like monsters as well as sand mounds to prevent bypassing of checkpoints through the hills.Anabta17:15 – About 15 vehicles waiting at the entrance to Anabta. Some ofthem we’ve seen about an hour ago at Beit Iba. Probably they were detained at the junction. Now they will wait here another hour.Entry is allowed to all vehicles, apart from Israeli ones, as long as they don’t have any merchandise on them. But exit is allowed only to residents of Shufa, Safarin and Beit Lid. This separation method has been in existence for some months now, most of the time. It is worth noting that the soldiers’ behaviour is fair.Jubara17:40 – soldiers from Nachshon Battalion. Normally they are fair with the population, but the problems start when one discovers strange and arbitrary orders passed on to them. A shopkeeper in Jubara, a resident of the village, arrives at the entrance from Tulkarm, with a private vehicle’s roof top loaded with za’atar [hyssop, a popular herb] and inside are stacked boxes of vegetables, as much as the small car can carry. But, the trouble is, the soldiers have been ordered to only allow the passage of merchandise once a day at a specific time. The man remains shocked. For three years he has been ferrying merchandise in his car from Tulkarm, and he has never encountered this order. They are sorry, it is a pity the merchandise will go to waste and rot, but he can only enterwithout the merchandise. They suggest he leaves the merchandise behindand go in. We call the advanced command post in Ephraim which means the soldier is offended that we bypass him. We make a big effort to explain that we are not undermining his authority but aiming to change the order he was given, an order which has no security reason. He then explains that there is a security reason: poisoned vegetables have been known to be sold at the roadside previously. But the man is entering his village and anyway at the specified time of day vegetables may also be poisoned. This possibility is not within his grasp, no doubt, following the intimidation he has been subjected to. In the meantime avan arrives with about 10 sheep on it (also poisoned?) and that person is also prevented from entering.18:30 – The advanced command post the order arrives to bring up for questioning the two (the greengrocer and the sheep owner).19:00 – An order arrives from the advanced command post to allow the two into the village.In the meantime the shift changes and the new soldier that arrives, who has witnessed some of the process so far, expresses his sadness that we are leaving. He felt like chatting to us. We are convinced he is being ironic – but he admits that it was a good idea to turn to the advanced command post. Yes! That happens too sometimes!