Beit Iba
Beit Iba, Sunday, 1.1.2006, AMObservers: Edna K., Racheli M.Guest: A Tel Aviv university studentThe report is one made from memory. Before Beit Iba by about one kilometer there was a rolling checkpoint where about 100 people were waiting and soldiers checking ids and then letting them go to the taxis. The only men between the ages of 15-30 who passed were those who had student cards. People waited on the road about half an hour. The soldiers refused a request to have two of them checking saying that one was needed to guard the other and that the checkpoint was a dangerous one. In that case why did it duplicate itself? We called for a captain to make this change and he did so. After about half an hour we went on to the checkpoint at Beit Iba to see what had happened to those who were lucky enough to get there. We found about 70 people waiting there and said that as they had already been checked at the rolling checkpoint they should be allowed through faster. We found two detainees one of whom is always stopped because the last three numbers of his id are similar to that of a wanted man. He knows the procedure and does not hope that the soldiers will know him and let him through. An hour after we arrive suddenly everyone is let through without being checked…about 100-130 people. The soldiers say that they are using their own judgment. One moment they are checking everything including a baby’s blanket and the next moment anything goes. Cars pass in about 15 minutes in an orderly fashion. The soldiers do not let us stand next to the enclosure. When we try to speak to the responsible soldier it does not help.
Beit Iba
See all reports for this place-
A perimeter checkpoint west of the city of Nablus. Operated from 2001 to 2009 as one of the four permanent checkpoints closing on Nablus: Beit Furik and Awarta to the east and Hawara to the south. A pedestrian-only checkpoint, where MachsomWatch volunteers were present daily for several hours in the morning and afternoon to document the thousands of Palestinians waiting for hours in long queues with no shelter in the heat or rain, to leave the district city for anywhere else in the West Bank. From March 2009, as part of the easing of the Palestinian movement in the West Bank, it was abolished, without a trace, and without any adverse change in the security situation.
Jun-4-2014Beit-Iba checkpoint 22.04.04
-