Beit Iba, Thursday, 31.8.06 AMObservers: Nora R, Chana P (reporting) Beit Iba 09:40 – at the kiosk two taxi drivers from Tamun in the Jordan Valley are drinking coffee. The distance from Nablus is ten minutes, but because they closed a checkpoint on this road, the legal route takes two hours, so they shorten the route across the fields: if they get caught, their windows are sometimes smashed or they are beaten up. The restrictions: males between18-25 cannot exit. Nablus, the surrounding villages (e.g., Salem, Rafidia, Balata) are under encirclement. There are no lines to enter. At the exit a long line of people and vehicles. A man with a feverish child in his arms asks to pass through quickly, and they let him. 10:15 – the women in “blue and white” bring the soldiers juice and snacks, and begin to attack us. They claim that we are paid by the European Union, they call us whores, leftists, dirt, Nazis, etc. One of them hands us a paper according to which we are forbidden to speak to soldiers. The circular is from 2004, signed by Padalon. 11:00 – on the way back, there is an improvised checkpoint next to Beit Lid.