FLYING CHECKPOINT & BEIT IBA, Wednesday, 28/09/05, PMObservers: Sara F., Debrah L. (reporting) Guest: MorFLYING CHECKPOINT 3:15PM – 3:40PMWe were told about a troublesome checkpoint where route 57 and 60 meet, which is just at the turnoff to Beit Iba. Indeed, there were 19 vehicles on line. We waited until the car, that was the last one on line when we arrived, passed through the checkpoint. It took just under a half hour but this is after they had already waited at the Beit Iba checkpoint. We asked the soldier what the problem was. The usual answer, “There has been a warning.” While we were there we saw him take one young man out of a taxi. He was told to go to the soldier sitting at the side of the road who took his ID and called it in. It only took a few minutes and he was released. On the way to Beit Iba we called the Humanitarian Centre of the Army to suggest they send in more soldiers to help. 5:21PM -5:47PM We return to the flying checkpoint after being at Beit Iba. Twenty cars are waiting. As we walk toward the front of the line we pass one car whose driver says, “We’ve been waiting a half hour but now that you are here things will speed up.” Another drives says, “When will this all end. We will end before this does.” When we get to the head of the line, we see that there is a double crew. I don’t know if they have just arrived or if things really do speed up the minute we get there. Suddenly cars that have a lot of passengers to check are pulled to the side by one crew and the other crew continues to have the regular line move forward. There are 3 detainees who are released but they don’t seem to have a ride home and they are waiting on the road. A new young man is detained and sits next to the soldier making the calls to check IDs. We recognize some of the cars and buses from Beit Iba that waited on line for an hour just a few minutes ago. In one of the buses is a young man who is mute. We’ve seen him at the checkpoints a number of times. The soldier thinks he is putting on an act when he doesn’t answer his questions. The soldier looks very suspicious and is about to give him a hard time. We tell the soldier we recognize the young man and know that he is indeed mute. Another soldier is nervous and gives an angry lecture to the drivers who have tried to cut ahead. By 5:39PM the long line has disappeared (18 minutes). We notice a police jeep has stopped a van with an Israeli license who was by- passing the line to the checkpoint. All the Israeli license plate cars by-pass the checkpoint as we know. Unfortunately this driver was an Israeli Arab and evidently they are suppose to know that they are not allowed to by-pass. He gets a ticket.BEIT IBA 3:45PM – 5:10PM When we arrive there is a long line of vehicles entering Nablus (20). They move quickly and within 15 minutes (4:00PM) the vehicle that was last on line when we arrived, passes through the checkpoint. There are a lot of pedestrians passing through since it is Wednesday and all the students are going home. They pass through without a back-up. The officer on duty is Lieutenant R. There was only one detainee during the hour and 25 minutes we were there and she was released within a few minutes. The most problematic situation was the line of vehicles coming from Nablus. The checking went slowly since buses take at least 10 minutes a piece. Often the young men leave the bus and go through the checkpoint which takes just a few minutes. The women stay on the bus and are checked by a soldier on the bus. This takes much longer but is evidently preferred by the women. In addition, there are always cars and ambulances that are humanitarian cases on an additional line that are checked by the same set of soldiers. No matter how much we tried to convince Lieutenant R. that some kind of solution should be found for when there is such a line up of traffic, it didn’t help. At 3:50PM I noted the last bus on line (about 15th) . It arrived at the head of the line at 4:41PM and was checked until 4:48PM. At 4:18PM I started checking another vehicle which was now the last one on line. When we left at 5:07PM it was second on line but there were 3 cars and a large bus on the humanitarian line that might have had priority. Just before we left, we once again requested from Officer R. if he could find some solution to the vehicle line. He said there was none. As one of the students shouted at me as he passed by, “You see but what do you do? You are of no benefit to me.”