Beit Iba Monday 27.3.2006, PMObservers: Michal A. Yonah A. Ziona S. (reporting)Natanya translating. Summary The characteristic of this shift is the imperviousness. The captains of the DCO have also been changed. Previously, they used to solve the humanitarian problems. Today they are the mouthpiece of the commander. If before the Palestinians had some hope now there is only despair. The general feeling is that things have become unbearable and that the situation is close to exploding. 15.15 Mahmoud Alan, a taxi-driver, is detained. He shows us a letter to the lawyer Gabi Laski which states that drivers who have a license and a security permit can enter Nablus according to the needs of the population. But no driver has such a permit and he asks us to check why no taxi-driver can enter Nablus. The bus drivers are allowed in. He says that hardly any taxi-drivers are allowed in and only the buses are. He says that even if only 20 taxis were allowed to enter it would help. 15.20 There are two detainees in the enclosure of whom one is an Israeli from Tarshicha who works at the factory in Qusin. He had not even got to the checkpoint and had been travelling the same road as he does each day but when he got to Qusin they had decided to detain and arrest him. All his and our efforts to explain that he was not entering Nablus were in vain. 15.30 About 100 men and women who are crowded into the humanitarian line stand with humiliated and despairing faces and their IDs in their hands. The same number of men are at the turnstiles and every step forward is greeted with shouts of “Back! Back!.” The pressure is immense and there are also women with young babies. An elderly man with a dignified and despairing face says to us “How long will it continue?” When we answer that we ask the same question, he says again in despair “Whom shall I ask?” and there is no answer. 15.40A young couple with a baby of a few days and another small boy ask to pass without standing in line but are sent to the back. A quarter of an hour later they try again but when nothing helps they despair and go back to Nablus. The soldier checking those leaving Nablus shouts, “I am not afraid of anyone. I only fear God.” Two more are sent to the enclosure. The guard in the sentry post and the rest of the soldiers are hunting for young men and anyone who tries to pass in the wrong lane is sent to the enclosure. It becomes a punishment cell and not one for keeping those who are suspected. After a while there are 20 men there but the electric door does not work and they have to climb over the wall. When we try to speak to the DCO representative he answers from a distance of 3 meters…”Yes, talk …I hear you.” He claims that the young men had not acted as they should. When we ask if that is the reason that they are detained for hours he replies “Good heavens no. Now they are being checked.” 15.50 A doctor known to us leaves the line. He is humiliated and angry. “This cannot go on. It only makes me hate these people.” This is also what he said last week. This is his daily lot. An old woman leaning on a cane begs to pass the line but the DCO sends her back. When we intervene he asks the commander what to do and is answered negatively. But in the meantime two more old women come and he allows them through. Michal tries to compliment the DCO on allowing the women through. He replies “I do not stand here for 5 hours to abuse people.” But this is the only time that he allows for humanitarian considerations. 16.15 A young man leaves the checkpoint . “This is no life. Believe me this is no life at all.” And I have to agree with him. 16.20 When Michal asks the commander why the man is detained as no one seems to know why, he replies “I do not have time to talk to you.” But when she insists he says “I detained him and it is none of your business why.” In the meantime the humanitarian line now has over 150 people in it and each time they try to go forward they are greeted with the shouts of “Back! Back!” 16.30 An old man asks to bypass the line. He cannot stand in the pressure but the commander who thinks he is Napoleon sends him back. Why should he not let him through? 16.40 A young man leaves the checkpoint saying that never never will there be peace.16.50 Napoleon returns the IDs to the detainees after giving them an educational lecture. 16.55An older man, a lecturer at the university who has to pass here daily eventually leaves the checkpoint. “Once I believed that the Israelis were good. Today I don’t believe that there is one good person amongst them. They do not want peace.” After what he goes through each day there is no way that we can persuade him. 17.40 Only the Israeli is still there.