Beit Iba, Thursday 13.04.06 PMObservers: Yehudit L., Hagar L., (reporting)Guests: Maya S., Sarah M. Summary: Complete closure for Palestinian vehicles at the Shave-Shomron checkpoint. Highway #60 completely blocked to vehicles, including humanitarian cases. In the place where the Shave-Shomron checkpoint used to be there is now barbed wire. According to the soldiers, information about the opening of the passage at Asira A-Smoliyya and the final closure of the way through Shave-Shomron were published in the Palestinian press. The junction at Al Badhan is closed. I heard residents saying that the road going through the junction Al-Badhan is closed again. That is, someone who wants to get from Nablus to Jenin must new travel by way of Asira Ash Shamaliyah, to the west. If the army allows them to travel on highway #60, along the section after the Shave-Shomron checkpoint (around Sebastiya), and if the Dotan junction is open to traffic, then it is possible to get to Jenin from Nablus. If not, one must crawl along small roads passing through villages. A permanent checkpoint at the J’it Junction. This has become the major checkpoint, which seems to be aimed at finally separating the northern part of the West Bank from the rest. At the junction, checkpoint have been erected in every direction (3), and an inspection station; from the East, there are 2 tracks: one for Palestinians and one for people with yellow license plates. From what I could see, there will be 3 tracks: for Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and the “lords of the land”. From the point of view of restricting travel, this order makes clear the setting of the new border: residents from the villages which are north of highway #60 and #57, between the ages of 15-30, are not able to travel southward. This restriction pertains to the residents of the Jenin area, Tulkarm and Nablus. The residents of the villages beween Tulkarm and Qalqilya will soon turn into another version of Jubara: people from Tulkarm cannot visit them, they can’t bring merchandise from Tulkarm or work there, they are cut off from Nablus and Tulkarm and must travel to Ramallah for everything, crossing numerous checkpoints….In the end, there will be a long “finger”: on a line from Avne-Hefetz, Enav and Shave-Shomron in the north; Beracha and Yizhar to the east; to the south, the group of Qedumim, and, to the west, Sla’it. After another period of continuous pressure on the residents of the villages between Tulkarm and Kedumim, they will have to leave and the two “Fingers” of Kedumim and Karnei Shomron will be joined. (note: all this is speculation on the part of the reporter) Chronological details17:30 – What used to be the Shave-Shomron checkpoint. The commander whom we meet tells us about the new roadblock map: the checkpoint of Shave-Shomron is closed to traffic, also for humanitarian vehicles. In its place, there are barbed wire fences and concrete blocks. The passage through is permitted only to army vehicles. The reason proferred: the road is blocked to traffic of Israeli citizens because the Palestinians have been laying roadside explosives. But why is the main road connecting the northern West Bank, passing through Palestinian territory only, with not even a single settlement, not available for the Palestinian residents? We didn’t get an answer, but it is obvious on the ground – the separation of the northern West Bank from the center and south. On the sides of the road, we see two cars with a Palestinian family whose keys and documents were confiscated by the patrol commander, who meanwhile took off on his patrol. The Palestinian is a butcher who has two butcheries in Deir Sharaf, who has come to buy sheep from Bedouin living in the fields and orchards of Deir Sharaf, north of the checkpoint. He took his family with him for an afternoon outing. He says that he always goes by way of the fields, as do many people from Deir Sharaf, that the army knows about this and that this is the way for people to get to their fields. He says that no one ever told them that this road was closed, a road which the patrol commander considers to be a route for people who try to avoid the checkpoint. Not surprisingly, this section which is closed to traffic, is in the area around Shave-Shomron settlement. Other areas, further away from the settlement, are not considered by the army as “areas serving people escaping from the checkpoint.” How can the residents of Deir Sharaf get to their fields and vineyards? We made contact between the butcher and the DCO, and left the area. 18:15 – Beit Iba checkpointRestrictions on movement – the residents of Nablus between the ages of 15-30 cannot pass. Residents of Tulkarm and Jenin can pass (though they will be stopped at another checkpoint). Public transportation (taxis and buses) cannot leave Nablus. A taxi driver who lives in J’it tells us that his son, a student, was arrested yesterday (Tuesday) on his return from the University and he doesn’t know what happened to him. We contact the army hotline and later inform him that his son is detained in the facility at Qedumim. Light pedestrian traffic at the checkpoint. 18:24 – 19 vehicles, mainly trucks, at the entrance to Nablus. Reasonable pace, line moves along. 18:27 – 15 vehicles at the exit from Nablus. Line moving along quickly. Also a lane for humanitarian vehicles.19:00 – J’it checkpoint (highway #55-60). Flying checkpoint has turned into permanent one, like the one at the Za’atara junction. Inspection stations were set up at the 3 entrances to the junction: from the direction of J’it (and Kedumim), from the direction of Tulkarm and Deir Sharaf, and from the direction of Huwwara (Ramallah and Nablus). On the southeast side, there were 2 inspection stations, one for Palestinian vehicles, the other for those with yellow license plates (for Israeli Arabs, according to the checkpoint commander). There weren’t any such cars at this point, but this didn’t prevent the checkpoint commander from leaving the line empty, while the inspection station was manned by 2 soldiers, so that dozens of Palestinian vehicles had to wait in line for hours. My colleagues go to see where the line ends, and return with the answer that they cannot see any end of the line (apparently there were about 60 cars in line). At this hour, only the checkpoint stopping the traffic coming from the east was manned: from Ramallah, Nablus, etc. Several detainees, including an Israeli truck driver who was detainee “until the police come”, because he was carrying his brother-in-law in an Israeli vehicle (I checked: I didn’t see a single sign within the territories which forbids this. There is such a sign at the checkpoint entering Israel, in the area of Qalqilya, and at the Jubara checkpoint). The inspection of vehicles was quite thorough, and went slowly. The cars were honking angrily, some trying to skip the line. The checkpoint commander tried to control the situation according to his understanding of it, i.e., he stopped the inspection altogether until those cars went back into the line. Meanwhile, the 2 soldiers in the empty line were smoking, idly. Calls to the DCO (who promised to send someone), to Naomi; after a while, M. appeared, who seemed to be the commanding officer of the unit, smiling and pleased with himself. Gives some orders and leaves; the checkpoint commander lets some vehicles through without inspection, but others he does inspect, and takes IDs for verification and stops a lot of people. One spot of light in all this was the headmistress of a school in Jenin, who was taking her students on a trip to Ramallah (5 minibuses and one bus of shouting children returning from shopping in Ramallah. Probably the principal had other things in mind, but this is what the children remembered). She persuaded the checkpoint commander to let them through outside of the line. This was his biggest contribution to shortening the line during the whole period we were there. A car with a sick girl with high fever asked our help in skipping the line, as the girl was feeling very bad. The commander allowed us to bring the car “but be careful that no other car comes with it”. The other drivers made space for it, the commander made it wait a little while, why not?, and then let it through. 20:10 46 vehicles in line from the east; I ask the 43rd car to contact me when they pass through the checkpoint. At 20:45 I got a call from the driver. That is, during 35 minutes, 45 cars passed through while, before our calls and conversation with the commander, each car took several minutes for inspection and many passengers were stopped for ID checks. Conclusion: there were no security issues determining the manner of inspection for the checkpoint commander. Rather, he had decided clearly to make the drivers and passengers wait for hours at the checkpoint so that they simply wouldn’t come this way again. 20:15 – We leave the checkpoint with heavy hearts, but it seemed as though the checkpoint commander changed his mode to quick inspections after our departure. At the entrance to Al Funduq there was a checkpoint, because of a suspicious vehicle. We waited with everyone; a settler car tried to get around the checkpoint, but was stopped. After 10 minutes, the movement started again. Army and police cars in the village….