Beit Iba, JubaraSunday afternoon, 11 December 2005 Watchers: Alix W., Gal T., Aliyah S. (reporting)On our way to Beit Iba we saw a number of “rolling” [mobile, unannounced] roadblock checkpoints: just before the Jit junction – there were not a lot of cars and the flow seemedto be moving reasonably well; another on the road to Anabta about 30 meters before the turnoff to Beit Iba, Nablus – there was a long line of trucks and taxis. We decided to check there on our way back. 14:00 – We arrive at Beit Iba. Some taxi drivers stopped us to complain that they had stood for 2 hours at the rolling checkpoint from Tulkarm-Anabta.At the Beit Iba checkpoint there was a new contingent of soldiers. One soldier stood at the side of the checking-stand pointing his gun at the turnstiles. The checking was going smoothly, the soldiers were courteous to the Palestinians and to us. They asked why there was no shift of Watchers on Saturday when the traffic is very heavy. We had no answer for them. In general, there seemed to be a heavier flow of people than there had been in the last few weeks.Although the checking was going smoothly, a crowd piled up on the Nablus side of the first turnstile, and people had to wait a while before going through. We decided that this was a point that needed more thorough checking next week.We noticed a number of buses in the vehicle line. When the bus came up to the checking point the young men were told to get off the bus and go through the pedestrian ID check. One group went straight to the window and was processed, and returned to the bus. But all of the people who had been waiting in line had to wait even more. Perhaps someone complained. The next group of young men to get off a bus tried to go to the window but were herded, at gunpoint, to the end of the entire line – behind the first turnstile – and, of course, missed the bus. Meanwhile Alix spoke to the soldiers there and the system changed with the next bus load – another 2 soldiers joined those checking the buses and checked the IDs right there by the bus and the men reboarded. Sometimes it does help to talk to them. A women coming from Nablus stopped to talk to us. She’s living in the USA, her 3 children are US citizens and they are now in the village Azira (- I found Bizaria on the map). She has to go on foot over the hills to get home from Nablus, but she stopped to thank us (MachsomWatch) for what we are doing.One young soldier started a conversation with me, asking me what I thought would be a better solution than the checkpoints. We talked for a few minutes about the possibilities of mutual talks between the Israeli and Palestinian leadership, but our conversation was cut short. Another soldier told me I was disturbing the work of all the soldiers and I backed off.We left the checkpoint at 15:55. On the way to the car, a taxi driver complained that the road to Tulkarm that goes past Shavei Shomron was closed and the taxis have to go a long way around on paths and broken roads that wreck their cars. We drove up to Shavei Shomron to check and found that since the explosion in Netanya the road isclosed, except for a possible “humanitarian” reason [i.e. medical and special needs cases that get expedited passage].Heading to Jubara, we came to the junction of road 60 (north to Jenin) and road 557 (west to Anabta and Jubara). On the south side of the junction there were 5 vehicles waiting to go through a rolling checkpoint, but on the side coming from the west there were at least 25 vehicles, trucks, buses and taxis, waiting to get through. And this is before they have to go through the Beit Iba checkpoint again.By this time darkness was coming on and we wanted to check on Jubara. The side road to Anabta looked completely quiet so we didn’t go in. At Jubara we tried to park by Abu Khatem’s house, as we have almost always done, and were told by the soldiers at the gate to the village of Jubara that we are not permitted to pass that gate. We tried to argue that the previous week we had gone all the way to the Schoolchildren’s Gate and back, but to no avail. We were not allowed to enter by order of the young officer in charge of the whole checkpoint.We parked on the other side, on the road going to the tower, and observed the checkpoint of the road coming from Tulkarm. There were 6 or 7 vehicles as far as we could see, but it was getting quite dark, AND THERE ARE NO LIGHTS AT THAT JUNCTION! This sounds crazy. I counted 30 lampposts in the entire huge checkpoint, with lights in alldirections, but the road coming from Tulkarm has no lights. The soldiers checking the cars, opening the back doors and the boots of the cars are working in darkness except for the headlights of the car behind. This is the second time we have questioned the officer in charge about the lack of light. He said he had complained to his commanders and the answer he got was that “The IDF has no money for lights! ! The soldiers should use flashlights.” (We saw no flashlights in use.) If the point of the checkpoints all over the territories is security, and this checkpoint is on the border with Israel, what security is there if something could be hidden in a car or truck that went through after dark. Comment:Is this Chelm, or is it!? The officer seemed to me to feel a little foolish telling us this.