Beit Iba, Thursday, 2.6.05, AMObservers: Hadassah T, EstiS and Ruti W (reporting)7.45: at the entrance a long line of taxis and drivers waiting for passengers. At the checkpoint our old acquaintance A. checkpoint commander, careful not to exchange a word with us. A large number of soldiers, military vehicles and unusual commotion. We couldn’t find out why. Someone suggested it was connected to the release of Palestinian prisoners. Passage into Nablus is rapid. In the opposite direction, towards the turnstiles, slower and contents of bags are being checked. An Israeli citizen from Baqa al Gharbiyah (with a blue ID) wants to enter Nablus to visit his mother in law before she undergoes open heart surgery. He has all the papers from the hospital, but because the surgery was urgently scheduled he didn’t have time to arrange a permit and is refused. Hadassah calls Shira the public appeals officer in Jerusalem who helped us in the past and she tells him what to do. A carter who wants to work at the checkpoint transporting belongings from side to side is not allowed through with his cart. He doesn’t have the necessary permit from the DCO. There are four licenced carters at the checkpoint and all others are refused. The line of trucks and other vehicles in the Nablus direction is long and passage is slow, but they go through in the end.