BEIT IBA, Saturday 30 April 2005 PM Observers (from Tel Aviv): Orit K., Nurit S. (reporting) (from Jerusalem): Hannah B., Vivi Z. (reporting) colour=red> 16:00-17:00 Summary There were more taxis than usual in the checkpoint area , but the drivers didn’t ask for our help. At the checkpoint itself, there was no pressure and people went through quickly; there were no detainees in the shed.We arrived at the checkpoint at 16:00, to meet a Palestinian who was to give us the results of his son’s MRI examination to take to a specialist at Tel Aviv’s Sheba hospital. He was very pleasant and thanked us for our help.There were relatively few people at the checkpoint , and passage was quick, with no delays. After a little while, we met Vivi and Hannah, from the Jerusalem shift, who told us that, a little further on in the direction of Nablus, there was a Border Police jeep which had been stopping people for inspection at random for the past 45 minutes. After an hour at Beit Iba, the Tel Aviv team went on to Jubara (see separate report). The Jerusalem team add: One has to remember that there is no such thing as a “reasonable” day at the checkpoint. Even when a great many people pass through very quickly, in spite of the turnstiles and the inspections, and even if the soldiers, during this shift, did not shout, or handcuff anyone , or overturn stalls, and, above all, didn’t fire – one must never forget just what we came here to “watch”. So we followed some Border Police going to some action 500 metres north of the checkpoint and spent much of our time here listening to drivers’ and passengers’ reports about the conditions for taxis and buses at the checkpoint.The parking lot for taxis used by those entering and leaving Nablus is half a kilometre away from the checkpoint, so that people have to walk quite a distance – approximately a kilometre between the taxi stand on the eastern (Nablus) side to the western side. Sometimes only a single taxi is allowed to approach the checkpoint. But the buses are allowed to drive with their passengers from one side of the checkpoint to the other. Other differences: the buses don’t collect their passengers at the checkpoint, but rather travel on the roads between cities, of which the most significant are Nablus and Tulkarm. They are not available all the time, as are the many taxis that swarm around on both sides of the checkpoint. The cost of a bus journey is much less than the taxi fare, but, in spite of this, the many people who switch taxis and walk the long distance between one taxi and the next , vastly prefer to use the taxis : taxis are always available and they also travel on the side roads to the villages and not just on the main roads between one bus stop and the next. This being so, it seems to us that the latest easing of restrictions on buses crossing the checkpoints is of more significance for the army than for the local population, and, in our opinion, its real importance is cosmetic: it makes the checkpoint and any roadblocks look much better , since it’s easier to deal with one bus with 55 passengers than with 10 yellow taxis waiting in a long line. Besides, it’s quieter at the checkpoint when there are no taxis and no drivers competing one with another for passengers.A Border Police jeep, driving toward Nablus, stopped some little distance before the taxi parking lot and the crew randomly stopped men to inspect their documents, since no one was being stopped at that point at the inspection stations…The men were held up for almost an hour, so we phoned to a number of places to try to speed up the return of their documents.