Beit Iba, Wednesday, 7/09/05, PMObservers: Elat B., Deborah L. (reporting)SUMMARY: There were two especially difficult problems on this shift. One was the time it took for vehicles from Nablus to pass through the checkpoint. The second was an exercise called “Stop Living!” that lasted for 45 minutes (from 4:47PM — 5:26PM). During that time no one was allowed to pass through the checkpoint in either direction except for an ambulance with a blinking light that was headed for Nablus. This means pedestrians and vehicles were not allowed to move from where they were. We were told it was just a trial run not a real event. Since vehicles waiting to leave Nablus at the check point before the “Stop Living!” exercise were already waiting 2 hours to pass through, it seemed entirely inappropriate to have an exercise of that nature at that time. One of the reasons for such a long wait for vehicles from Nablus seems to be that the checking of buses can take up to 15 minutes. Couldn’t an extra set of soldiers be enlisted to help with this problem that we see over and over again?DETAILS: 3:37PM We arrive at Beit Iba. Lieutenant R. is the officer of the checkpoint and O. is the DCO Representative. There are 15 cars waiting on line to get into Nablus. They say it takes from a half hour to an hour to pass through the checkpoint. There are very few pedestrians. There are 19 cars that I can count that are leaving Nablus (note: it is possible to see the line of cars if one stands on the south side of the checkpoint, near the red and white sign, opposite the area where people from Nablus are waiting behind the turnstiles). I know from the past that there are more then 19 because there are smaller vehicles between the buses and trucks that I can not see from that angle. I take note of one of the vehicles some where in the middle, to see how long it takes for him to pass. It is an hour before he passes after an additional 6 minute wait at the checkpoint itself (4:36PM).3:48PM I time the last vehicle waiting on the line to Nablus (the number waiting is down from 15 to 9) and it takes 20 minutes to pass through (4:06PM). I stop to talk to a bus driver from Nablus who is waiting for his passengers’ IDs to be checked. He says the wait on line was 2 hours. He waits 15 minutes to have the IDs checked . He leaves the checkpoint at 4:04PM.3:50PM A wedding party of about 6 cars comes to the checkpoint from the direction of Sarra. They want to enter Nablus but are refused passage because they do not have permits for their cars. 4:00PM According to the drivers, it now is a 20 minute wait on the line to Nablus. There are about 30 pedestrians waiting on line leaving Nablus.4:06PM We time the last vehicle on line to Nablus and he passes through at 4:20PM. A 15 minute wait. A driver of a minibus from Nablus says he waited 2 hours on line. His check at the checking booth only takes 3 minutes.4:10PM A driver of a large bus from Nablus tells us he waited 2 hours on line. He waits 5 minutes to be checked at the booth. We call G., who is Y.’s replacement as the spokesman, to complain about the wait on the line of vehicles from Nablus. We called G. because Michalina, the MW person in the morning, told us she had talked to him earlier about the problem with the vehicle line and we wanted to carry through on what she had started.4:15PM G. calls us back to tell us he is checking out the problem. A Palestinian passes and says to me as he points to the long line of vehicle traffic, ” ‘No Tolerance’, this is what your Security Minister has said.”4:23PM There is now no vehicle traffic to Nablus. There are about 20 pedestrians waiting on line from Nablus.4:37PM There are 13 plus vehicles on line from Nablus (as I’ve said there are always small vehicles in between the larger ones that we can’t see). We note a truck with red and white stripes. He passes through at 6:18PM. We note that the line of humanitarian cars from Nablus wait on line about 10 minutes.4:43PM I decide to time a pedestrian. A young man with a red and white shirt. Because he gets caught in the “Stop Life!” exercise, he doesn’t pass through until 5:34PM (almost an hour). Captain R. arrives and comes up to me as I’m writing down the time and asks “How long does it take?” I tell him that it doesn’t seem that the waiting time of pedestrians is the problem but vehicles from Nablus are waiting 2 hours. He says he’ll check on it.4:47PM “STOP LIFE!” is the message to all the soldiers. They shut the booth windows for the pedestrians, send a truck back who was just approaching the checking booth from Nablus, stop all those approaching the checkpoint from afar, and even people who had already had their IDs checked and are on their way out of the checkpoint are stopped and ordered not to move. We try to see if this is real or not. A soldier tells us it is an “exercise”.4:59PM. We try to get A. (commander of Beit Iba) but there is only a message machine. We call T. and he is surprised to hear about this “exercise.”5:12PM The “exercise” continues and the number of people is increasing. We call Nomi and she suggests calling S. at the Central Command, but there is no answer. We call T. again. He asks, when we tell him how things are building up, “Is this a busy time ?” We tell him we see what looks like over 100 pedestrians and there was already a long line in the vehicle line before all this started.5:25PM It continues…. We call G..5:26PM The end of the exercise. Approximately 45 minutes of stopping all movement for the purpose of an exercise.5:34PM We call A. again to tell him to help out with the added crowd that has gathered as a result of the time out. He doesn’t answer and neither does T. But T. calls back . The man with the red and white shirt that I timed at 4:43PM has now passed through–51 minutes.5:42PM I time a man with a black and white shirt with 2 red strips on his sleeve. He passes through at 5:54PM–12 minutes. There are 6 vehicles on line from the direction of Sarra, 9 vehicles going to Nablus and 16 from Nablus.5:54PM The line of pedestrians leaving Nablus has totally diminished. There are no more vehicles from Sarra, and 10 still waiting to go into Nablus. A bus driver who has arrived at the checking booth from Nablus tells me he has waited 3 hours. He waits until 6:10PM before all his passengers have been checked (16 minutes).6:12PM No more vehicles to Nablus. I see 13 large vehicles coming from Nablus. The smaller ones, as noted above, are hard to see between the trucks and buses.6:15PM T. says he will check why there was an exercise done today during a busy time. 6:19PM Another driver from Nablus says he has waited 3 hours. He says he usually has to wait at least an hour either coming into and/ or out of Nablus. 6:22PM A driver coming from the direction of Sarra driving a canvas covered van is not allowed to go through the checkpoint. He lives at Atma near Tapuah Intersection. He has a Red Crescent ID card but no permit for the vehicle. He claims he was allowed to pass through at Beit Iba at 11:15AM this morning. I call the Army Hot Line. They say he can not pass through. “How will he get home?” “Tell him to take a taxi home and to order a tow truck to take his van because no one can pass Beit Iba without a permit for his vehicle.” The red and white truck we timed at 4:37PM passes through.6:46PM We leave. There are almost no pedestrians, vehicles to Nablus pass right through, 15 on line from Nablus.On the way home, we stop off at the village of Jit to meet with Zakaria from Physicians for Human Rights. He has asked us to come. He tells us that trucks that come to the water source at Sarra to collect water were stopped by soldiers and were not allowed in to Sarra today. He has written permission from the Central Command for collecting the water. The villages of Immatin, Far’ata, Hajja, and Bakat are dependent on this water. We promised to try to find out who the right people to contact are regarding this problem.