Jubara, Ar-Ras roadblock, Anabta. Tuesday 25.4.06 AMObservers: Shlomit S, Ruti C, Elinoar B (reporting), Jonathan (a guest from Tel Aviv), Benedicte (A guest from Belgium). 06:15-06:45 Jubara & Ar-Ras Irtah is deserted. The Jubara complex is almost empty as well. In the village Abu Hatem complains – no clients. We go up to gate 22 (753). Agricultural workers with permits for this gate can come in, others are sent back. The school buses pass safely. We go down to Ar-Ras. A mixed group of men from Jenin – workers, students, teachers stand by the road. When we ask them what happened, at first they answer reluctantly: all is well, this officer (a captain) is a good fellow etc. The usual heartbreaking survival tactics. It turned out they were caught up on the hills trying to bypass the checkpoints. Indeed the good fellow releases them pretty soon and sends them on their way back to Jenin. The checking of the vehicles going west is very slow, and done from a distance. The officer says this is so because this is where the commander of this very same battalion was killed a few weeks ago, now they are cautious. 09:30-10:00 AnabtaThe road back from Beit Iba to Jubara is swarming with pedestrians let out of buses or coming down from the villages, trying to get wherever they have to get. In Anabta the usual restrictions are still on: only Saffarin, Shufa & Beit Lid people as well as ambulances, humanitarian vehicles etc can drive out. The checkpoint commander says all students can come out on foot. But then they don’t let them into Nablus, we tell him. This is because a young girl, “very nice, well spoken, speaks Hebrew” was caught in Jubara carrying a knife “this big” (1/2 metre). True or false, this must be the origin of the rumour we heard in Beit Iba about soldiers searching young women “intimately” in Anabta.