Beit Iba, Wed 24.9.08, Afternoon
No incidents worth reporting, except that there’s no one at the checkpoints.
14:50 6 cars entering, 8 leaving. Traffic flows freely.
Three lanes for cars: one entering Nablus, and two leaving – one of them “humanitarian” and for Israelis, the second for busses, trucks and cars.
At the pedestrian checkpoint:
The examination isn’t very rigorous. There are almost no people waiting in the shed. One turnstile is operating. The humanitarian lane is empty. From time to time people arrive and pass through almost without being checked.
15:15 The shed fills up slightly, and another turnstile is opened.
Busses arrive from time to time; the ID’s of the driver and of young men are checked.
15:45 A vehicle full of goats goes through with no problem, apparently with a special permit. The shed is still almost empty. The DCO representative says that its because the checkpoint at Asira Shamaliya was removed. It makes more sense for Palestinians to go through there.
15:50 Since the checkpoint was empty – we left.
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
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