Beit Iba, Tue 24.2.09, Morning
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08:30 Beit Iba is very lively, many students and a long line to exit Nablus. We timed a vehicle; it took 20 minutes to go through the checkpoint.
08:55 12 detainees. The checkpoint commander says they’ve been there for half an hour. They’re being held for the GSS. Otherwise, no one is at the checkpoint.
09:05 About 8 of the detainees were released without being interviewed. Two remain in detention. We try to speak to one of the men after hehas been interviewed, but he’s in a hurry and isn’t interested in talking to us. He said that when they detained him he wasn’t told why, of course.
09:10 Three more people detained.
09:25 8 detainees, all waiting to be interviewed by the GSS.
09:30 A female soldier, yelling and roaring, sends a Palestinian to detention. We try to determine whether all the detainees are waiting to be interviewed. Adham, the DCO representative, isn’t visible on site, but the checkpoint commander confirms they’re all to be interviewed.
Five minutes later another group of detainees is released, without being interviewed. They spent an hour in detention for no reason.
Beit Iba
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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.
Jun-4-2014Beit-Iba checkpoint 22.04.04
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