Beit Iba, Sunday, 26.2.06 AMObservers: Racheli M, Zvia S (reporting)07:30 – Shave Shomron Junction: Rolling checkpoint, three soldiers, four cars in line. Soldiers don’t talk to us, ignore us.07:39 – Beit Iba Checkpoint:A line of ten cars on the way to Nablus, among them two buses. A bus reaches the checkpoint after 20 minutes wait, all the passengers are taken off, after 15 more minutes the bus continues on its way.Few pedestrians in either direction through the turnstiles.08:15 – 13 cars in line waiting for Nablus direction. The checks are at snail’s pace, three soldiers demonstrating “the slave who would rule.” Racheli asks them to speed up the check. The arrogant one responds: ”Move from here! I decide what will be here (leaning on the wall of the dugout, hands in pockets, belly thrust forward, complete picture of self-importance and overlordship).” No one to talk to.Phone call to the brigade spokesman – doesn’t answer. The answer machine directs to the war room. We phone the war room: S. answers, but she doesn’t deal with these matters.08:30 – We phone Major N. – after three hearings of “songs of the gay ‘80s” he answers: yes, he will try to do something.08:40 – vehicle checks still at snail’s pace. They’re climbing on a truck to open hospital milk churns.08:45 – nothing changed, another phone call to the spokesman, no answer.08:50 – phone Major N: yes, he’s checking. 09:00 – three more soldiers arrive. Now the check is more efficient. Still few people passing the checkpoint. 10:00 – we drive to Madama – to bring the forms of Taher, the youth injured by IDF soldiers three months ago, who now needs physiotherapy. The physiotherapist who is willing to go with Racheli is interested, first of all, in seeing the documentation of the medical treatment. Shave Shomron Junction: the checkpoint is still there, with a line of eight cars, and soldiers still ignoring us. 10:10 Jit Junction – a checkpoint. We see Amira Haas and three other (French) journalists standing by a Palestinian car. Amira calls us. She is in a hurry, and leaves us to deal with three men who came out of Nablus (at 08:00) and want to get to Tulkarm. They are transporting goods – food (they call it “hot ice cream”). After passing Huwwara Checkpoint, they were stopped at a rolling checkpoint at Jit Junction. The soldier opened the back door to check the goods, and then got a phone call, left the car door open and went aside to talk on the phone. The soldier forbade the driver and the two owners of the goods to get out of the car. After about a quarter of an hour, the driver (a middle aged man, diabetic) needed to urinate. The driver hooted softly (according to them) to the soldier to get permission to get out of the car to urinate. According to the Palestinians, the soldier shouted rudely at the man not to dare to hoot at him… Then, one of the owners of the goods who, according to his colleague, is a nervous man, started to shout at the soldier. The soldiers claim that he also pushed the soldier and threatened him.The soldiers called their commander, Captain I, who arrived in a jeep, and called the police to arrest the (nervous) Palestinian for assaulting a soldier. We heard this tale from the owner of the goods who was out of the car because the second one was on the military vehicle with his eyes covered by flannelit (rifle cleaning cloth).We went to talk to the officer, who at first said that he must back up his soldiers and he believed that the soldier was indeed pushed: “And what would have happened if he had stuck a knife in him?” The soldiers must defend themselves against threatening Palestinians. Captain I: “The police will come and will decide who is right.” We appealed to I’s better judgment, explaining to him the now expected fate of the Palestinian. From what we know of the police and the military courts, we had no doubt that the Palestinian would pay a heavy price – too heavy for one nervous push (that is if we accept the words of the frightened soldiers as the truth…). To our relief, I said he would talk to the police that he had already summoned. But he asked us to talk to the reporter (Amira Haas) who had photographed the soldiers and said that she would write the story in the paper [Haaretz], and get her word not to publish the photographs of the soldiers or the story. We promised. 10:30 – the police arrive, I. talks to them, we also said a few words.. The policeman (a Druze whose exact name we did not remember) was completely okay. He spoke to the blindfolded Palestinian and the whole thing was over.We talked to Amira HaasAt least we helped today with something… On our way to Madama, we got a phone call from a Palestinian named Abdullah who had been arrested at Beit Iba, thrown in the pen and had his car keys taken11:00 – we arrive at Madama. 11:30 – we went back to Beit Iba. Abdullah had already gone. We phoned him: he said they released him, gave him the keys – and he has no idea why they arrested him. He claims that the soldiers heard him talking to a woman from MachsomWatch, and that’s why they let him go.