JUBARA, IRTAH, BEIT IBA , Sunday 25 July 2004 AMObservers: Fanny H., Daphna A., Na’ama Z. (guest), Naomi K. & Esti Z. (reporting) Immediately we left Taibeh, and even before we reached the chaos of the checkpoints on the main road, we looked up to see – far away on the ridge of the hills – bulldozers carving into the hillside, like huge worms gnawing into a huge apple. What a sight!07:10 — IrtahSeveral trucks were waiting to enter the loading/unloading area. Over the road, a dozen transit-vans were waiting for labourers from Jenin who work in the Beit Lid area. All of the labourers had valid permits, but a new directive has been in force for some days: everyone coming from Jenin is denied passage via Irtah, even if they have permits – they may travel only through Jalama north. Why? “I don’t know, I’m just carrying out orders”…One of the drivers was furious and said that this vast detour left no time for the men to work. At the loading/unloading facility, there were only two trucks, traders were crossing through without hindrance. (But not those from Jenin). We drove to Jubara, and went into the village; it’s the summer holidays and the children are off school. It was all very quiet.JubaraThe checkpoint is an island of concrete within an asphalt maze. When one crosses from Jubara to Tulkarm, a really tiny section, one now crosses “highways”. Carts can no longer make their way in a straight line, as they did once. Now the river of asphalt forces drivers to wind along circuitously. We found it hard to make a simple u-turn. There were very few people and cars at the checkpoint. 08:30 — Beit Iba Working -hours at the checkpoint are from 06:30 to 19:00. The District Co-ordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that handles civilian matters; it usually has representatives at the checkpoints, ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians] representative still hadn’t turned up. Drivers stood besides their trucks, waiting. Many people wanted to cross to Nablus. Buses let off passengers by the checkpoint, and a stream of people crossed through, with lots of young people and children too. Nobody seemed to have any particular problems crossing.The checkpoint was relatively quiet. The electronic metal-detector had gone. Some drivers, one even a Nablus resident, asked us to help them get to Nablus. There’s a directive that “anyone not on the list can’t get through”. What list? The list shows only drivers supplying services to the industrial region west of Beit Iba, close to the checkpoint. No one else can cross. How were they supposed to get through? Only through Irtah. There was no one to talk to. We spoke to R., [of the DCO] who was determined on the matter of the trucks. We asked why, where’s the logic? Only this way, R. maintained, is there greater control over checking the trucks. We persuaded the drivers that they were wasting their time at Beit Iba. By the time they got permission to cross here, half the working-day would be over. There were two detainees, Nablus residents studying in Tulkarm. A while later, they too crossed.An elderly woman was there with her son, a US resident who was accompanying her to hospital in Nablus. But he had no permit, and of course was refused permission to cross. His mother could have gone through alone, but she abandoned the idea, and they left. People were crossing in both directions.09:45 – O., the DCO representative, arrived.10:00 – Jit junction was quite empty. We stopped at the Qedumim DCO. The car park was full of cars and people. The entrance to the DCO has been upgraded and now has revolving doors that only open when a sentry posted on the roof presses a button. So he can let people in and out as he decides – he can also refuse to let people leave the DCO.Around 60 people were inside the complex. Some came up to us at once with stories and complaints, trying to tell us everything before someone stopped them. And indeed, a little while later we were told to leave the complex and go to the officer outside. It was a familiar ritual. We spoke to G., who remembered us, knew us, and with assertive charm asked us not enter the DCO again unless we co-ordinate it ahead of time.We asked why there wasn’t a window only for women – who are always pushed to the end because they have never stood in a mixed queue – with one phone-call he arranged a women-only window. G. was proud – “You see, all you have to do is ask”. Of course, they could also have thought of it for themselves. We returned via Qalqiliya, and there were no special events on the way. But the Beit Iba shift in the afternoon had a very different experience (see report under Nablus region).