Beit Iba, Thursday, 22.9.05, PMObservers: Ayelet B., Roni. K. (reporting)While we were there, we were witness to how soldiers refused to allow a woman, resident of Qalanswa, and her 4 small children, to go through to visit their father who lives in one of the villages. An everyday occurrence, without any special attention, nothing. Such was also the fate of an elderly man, reserved and gray-haired, who asked to attend the funeral of his father-in-law. The man behaved very quietly with the soldiers, patiently, showed them various permits, but nothing helped. As though the fate of our country depended on his arrival or non-arrival at a family funeral.All this is connected to a central incident later on at Beit Iba, when soldiers got on a bus full of women who were on their way from Nablus to a wedding in one of the villages, and took out a young woman, originally from East Jerusalem (i.e., with a blue ID), and sent her to the detention shed together with her infant, as though she was a major criminal – who knows what she might have been capable of doing…Beit IbaLight traffic of pedestrians, particularly at the beginning of our shift. Actually the vehicle traffic was also quite light, when one realizes that the main roads to Jenin and Tulkarm continue to be blocked, but the traffic seemed heavy because of all the delay and thorough inspections. We glanced, from time to time, from the checkpoint to the inspection station for vehicles. Every time the traffic seemed almost stopped in all the lanes. We measured the waiting time at 30-45 minutes, sometimes more than an hour – like 2 trucks which stood like a permanent backdrop at the entrance to Sarra, almost until the end of our shift. The commander, T., and his soldiers refused to communicate with us.16:10Increased traffic of those entering the checkpoint, but everyone goes through quickly.16:25A bus full of women on their way to a wedding in the village of Beit Lid (next to Tulkarm) is stopped for inspection. Right away a few women get off, all dressed in traditional black, and the bus continues on without them. They continue to stand in confusion, really at a loss, in the same spot. It is clear that this excursion from Nablus was very rare for them, and they are not up to date on the ways of the checkpoint. For instance, what they should do now. As we said previously, one of them had a Jerusalem ID. The soldiers took the ID; her friends, including her mother, refuse to abandon her. A telephone to M.T. – we explain the mess, worried that this issue could take hours.16:35One of the women decides to continue on to the wedding, gets into another car; the others give up on the wedding, and the woman with the infant is sent to the detention shed. Her mother accompanies her, and so they remain, sitting, for more than 2 hours, most of the time in anxiety because there is no soldier who can explain to them what is happening, or how long it might take – that is certainly not the custom (I am always astounded at the lack of even minimal communication or reporting to the detainees, especially when it concerns women or another weak group that doesn’t understand the checkpoint procedures). A telephone to the humanitarian hotline. There they explain the procedure to us: 2 hours waiting at the most, until the police arrive.17:00Another call to M.T. – there is such a lack here of someone with common sense, someone with eyes in his head, who can see what is happening…We are frustrated; Ayelet remains at the checkpoint, I go to watch at the vehicle line. For now there are about 12-13 vehicles waiting at the entrance, and, at the Qusin Junction, the 2 trucks are still stuck in their original position. The driver of one of them is busy all the time taking down a shipment of bottles tied on the roof of the vehicle, a Sisyphean task which goes on and on. The inspections are extremely thorough – even the donkey driver (a porter) is made to take off the blankets and rags covering the donkey.17:10The vehicle line is the center of attention here, especially when the commander, T., arrives and joins the inspection team. Now a small drama developes, connected to me. T. notices me – I stood next to the blocks surrounding the checkpoint, the whole road was between us. He came over to me and asked/ordered me to get away from there. I point out that he could choose not to communicate with us, this was his right, but he could not force me to move from there. This dialogue didn’t go on, since one of his soldiers who came to his help, said to him, “forget it” and immediately he ordered all the traffic to come to a halt: the inspection of vehicles was stopped and the innocent people who were walking to the checkpoint were told to stop. So I found myself in a kind of “stoppage of traffic” procedure in which I didn’t have many choices.17:15I returned to the checkpoint, to talk with Nomi and Ayelet, with a very bad feeling…17:20Telephone to the humanitarian hotline – the detainees were still waiting. They reported to us that at the headquarters they were trying to speed up the woman’s release.An increased movement of people toward the exit; in the background, the voice of an old woman, who was annoyed by the thorough inspection of all her belongings.17:30A large stream of people returning from work at the entrance. The husband of the detainee arrives at the checkpoint – everyone is waiting.17:50We have to leave, taking down the telephone numbers. A telephone conversation on the way home reveals that the woman was finally released at 6:30.