Beit Iba, Tue 29.7.08, Morning
Beit Iba 07:30 – 08:30
We observed a line of about 15 people during most of the hour we watched. From time to time a large number of people arrive who've gotten off a bus. The soldiers, without talking much, notice, and another soldier immediately comes over to direct the women so they don't have to wait. No crowding or jams. It seems that the "facelift" the checkpoint underwent last year did away with the humanitarian line. It is blocked by an improvised barrier. The women, in traditional dress, have to push through the youths and men waiting on line in order to pass through without being checked. The DCO representative noticed the crowded line and removed the improvised barrier to allow the women and men to pass through to their destination relatively quickly.
Those leaving Nablus are busy buckling their belts and putting their shoes back on. It's always embarrassing, being forced to publicly dress yourself, this personal activity requiring concentration – putting a belt through the loops and buckling it.
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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