Beit Iba, Thu 1.5.08, Afternoon
There are few people coming from Nablus, 2 detainees.
14.30 We got to Beit Iba where we met two members of the World Churches (the program of the Ecumenicals who escort people in Israel and Palestine). This is what is written on their visiting cards. They were from Finland and Sweden. They told us that they have been witnesses to harassment of the Machsomwatch women by soldiers and that the previous week the commander had asked them to move off to the café saying that they were a nuisance. We saw a reserve soldier who had a green sign on his breast from the generous blue and white women who had also given him sweets and cool drinks and they had also given him a pamphlet telling him how to deal with Machsomwatch women. Interesting.
A shift of new soldiers arrived and the line lengthens because everyone is busy.
14.45 8-10 trucks and cars in the direction of Nablus, checking takes about half an hour.
15.00 The humanitarian line crawls along because of a change in shift. The two detainees are freed. A soldier stood with her weapon armed and pointing at the line. I said it frightened me and she said that that was the way it should be. There was a big traffic jam at the crossroads in all directions because the driver of a big truck who did not have a permit had to go back and change drivers. The new driver went through quickly and with no problems.
16.30 We left giving a lift to the two Scandinavian volunteers.
16.30 – 17.00 ’Anabta. Only the coffee seller is there and he received clothes from us and said that his wife was ill with cancer. When we left the volunteers they asked that the women of Machsomwatch give guidance to the new people who are arriving this week. . __,_._,___
Beit Iba
See all reports for this place-
A perimeter checkpoint west of the city of Nablus. Operated from 2001 to 2009 as one of the four permanent checkpoints closing on Nablus: Beit Furik and Awarta to the east and Hawara to the south. A pedestrian-only checkpoint, where MachsomWatch volunteers were present daily for several hours in the morning and afternoon to document the thousands of Palestinians waiting for hours in long queues with no shelter in the heat or rain, to leave the district city for anywhere else in the West Bank. From March 2009, as part of the easing of the Palestinian movement in the West Bank, it was abolished, without a trace, and without any adverse change in the security situation.
Neta EfroniJun-4-2014Beit-Iba checkpoint 22.04.04
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