Beit Iba, Tue 25.3.08, Afternoon
16.15 Beit Iba. When we arrive there is a group of captains from the DCO, including the commander who receives us with a polite smile and who is prepared to speak to us. They say that a boy was found in the morning with two pipe devices but say that this is not the reason why they are here. They say that they have come to observe. We discuss the motivation of these boys and the importance of the checkpoint. Our visitor, a Jewish artist who speaks Hebrew, takes photographs and listens.
A further surprise is the presence of reservists here. The atmosphere is comfortable even though the checking is as careful as with the regular soldiers and the attention given is to the point. Not hostile, not suspicious and no tension.
The commander was prepared to speak and to listen. We told him that the young commander of
the checkpoint had insisted on sending back an old woman laden with heavy basket to the front of the line because she had tried to get through without standing there even though we tried to explain to him how difficult this would be for her (think of your mother). The reservists said that that is the difference…the knowledge that comes with maturity and which is lacking in the young soldiers. The regular soldier knows a different world where obedience to orders is a defense against fear. Again the dog checks cars. Today there was permission for the quarry vehicles to travel to Nablus: there were 5 trucks. When we ask if there is alleviation allowing the quarry which has the most pressure to take out more trucks when other quarries takes out less, we were told that this was not so. Each quarry can only take out 5 trucks.
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.
Jun-4-2014Beit-Iba checkpoint 22.04.04
-