Beit Iba, Sunday, 4.12.05, PM Observers: Aliya S., Gal T., Susan L. (reporting)Summary Perhaps it’s not appropriate to quote The Book of Ecclesiastes, but there’s both wisdom and poetry therein as well as an impression that fits today’s shift: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.” With exceptions… But, of course, the nature of the Occupation is to keep the population off balance.13:25 Hummer near village of Jit, but not stopping vehicles. No other rolling checkpoints.13:30 SarraNo giant Israeli flag flying atop the military tower on the hill facing the village, in fact no tower at all. It’s gone! Last week, we had the impression that it wasn’t there, vowed to return this week to make sure. Maybe it never was! No soldiers, hardly any signs of the former checkpoint, just a few concrete boulders, remains of the concrete lanes Palestinians had to stand in. Nevertheless, boulders still decorate the entrance to the village, and the water-dripping hose tell of the continuing lack of water in this and the other surrounding villages. Just a few school kids returning from school.14:00 Beit IbaA., the DCO representative, is back, holding forth with a group of five soldiers at the vehicle junction checkpost. Not a car or truck is checked as he lectures (we can’t hear, but all non-verbal signs suggest the same) the troops. Nothing moves from the three sides of the checkpost. Two donkey carts wait. Two ambulances wait: one a gift from Cantabria (Spain), the other “from the Turkish people.” They all wait. 14:07 The group seminar is now over, individual consultations continue with A., while two rifle-ready soldiers stand behind a concrete shield — one facing the traffic from Nablus, the other the traffic to Nablus.14:20 Once it starts, traffic is checked smoothly. Not so for the buses. Now the army has come up with another innovation. When a bus arrives, three soldiers congregate around it, and all the young men, sometimes the young women too, are hauled off the bus, the soldiers shout to them to move back (where to is irrelevant), but the passengers form themselves, naturally, into two groups, male and female. All the IDs are collected, then the soldiers huddle a distance away from the crowd, check each ID against the inevitable little list, which, today, seems to be longer than usual. Then, with a bark, the passengers are ordered back on to the bus. The same scene is repeated for the next passing bus. All the buses are full: mainly students from An-Narjah University. A large crowd, they just wait, outside the bus. The traffic, not heavy at this time of day, although, by 15:30, when we leave, there are 15 vehicles on line into Nablus. Checking is one at a time, whether it’s a bus, a donkey cart or a private car. One student suggests that we film the scene. Suggestion taken! Another tells that we should go back to the main checkpost: a friend of theirs is being held, and he has an exam tomorrow! Another tells that from the university to Qalqiliya will take three hours. A regularly passing pedestrian, who lives at the nearby village of Jit and works in Nablus, also tells that it takes him three hours each way. “Is your journey really necessary?” Nobody can want to travel unless they have to. Getting about the Occupied Territories for Palestinians these days is sheer hell. But that’s the point of the Occupation.We ask the DCO representative, lounging at the vehicle checkpost, or eating his lunch, why the new procedure with the buses. “You know what happened in Huwarra” is the laconic answer. We don’t bother to ask whether he means or two or three years ago; two or three weeks ago; two or three days ago. What’s the difference? There’s nothing new under the sun….14:30 In the detention compound, a student. The soldiers, who are new, think we’re also novices, and tell us they’re checking on the computer (said in English). We’re also told, by these new soldiers’ commander, Y., that we can’t stand here, we can’t stand there. New rules, made up on the spot. Two soldiers, about to leave the checkpoint, leave their backpacks in the detention compound. One blows smoke in the face of the student detainee. A lot of smoking also by soldiers on duty today.14:35 The detainee is let go. His bus has long gone.14:55 The same ritual with another bus. Another single student pulled out from the host of students, escorted by one of the three soldiers to the detention compound. But the detention compound is occupied by soldiers, still lounging about. They get up, and as they leave gesture to the student, “inviting” him in…. A minute later he’s released. We’re forced to rephrase — for present purposes, “Is your detention really necessary?”At the Nablus entrance two Zeldas stand. One leaves, hooting its way, with the inevitable cloud of dust, past the checkpost, but from atop the first, a soldier appears out of the hatch, seems to be permanently stationed there, and there are another two soldiers below. All this before people even get to the turnstiles. 15:10 At the main checkpoint, many people’s IDs are not checked at all. “All the girls (not women) can go” calls the soldier from inside the checkpost. There is little new under the sun….