BEIT IBA, Monday, 8 March 2004, PMObservers: Maya K., Maya M., Ruth K., Dina M., Naomi L. (reporting)colour =red>SarraThe checkpoint was not operating.At the bottom of the road from Sarra a combined army/police checkpoint had been set up. Waiting in line were a dozen cars, buses and trucks. Some had been waiting for two hours, others had left Tulkarm en route for Ramallah at 09:00 that morning and at 14:00 were still waiting their turn. And that was their second checkpoint of the day. An overbearing policeman was carrying out his job punctiliously. On the outskirts of Beit Iba, a five-minute drive away, another temporary checkpoint had been set up – a jeep and soldiers — with people waiting to continue their journey. We didn’t stop, as we wanted to get to Beit Iba.Beit Iba checkpointCompared with other occasions, there wasn’t much pressure at the checkpoint. After a short wait, people went through freely and there were no crowds. Nevertheless, when we arrived at 14:00, there were over 20 detainees. One of them, a young man with an injured hand, had a referral to a doctor. His hand was bandaged, he’d been detained for some hours, but no one was bothered by this. Throughout the entire shift, we failed to get him, or anyone else, released, though we used all the phone numbers that we had where we could expect to get some help Towards 17:00 we were told that there was a problem with someone’s fax, and that’s why the release of the detainees was taking so long. At five, the injured man was released after an officer, O., intervened – he said the delay had been excessive. We left the checkpoint – and the 26 detainees. Some had been detained for over eight hours and were finally released at 19:00 – procedures notwithstanding. A family with small children was returning from a wedding in Tulkarm. The mother and children were allowed across, the father wasn’t. After we spoke to O. he got the man through. That’s why he’s there, O. told us. On the other side was a couple, with permits, returning from an appointment at a fertility clinic. The woman was allowed through, the husband was separated from her and sent to be checked. His wife sat on the ground and burst into tears. We spoke to O. and they were sent on their way.A young man with a dentist’s appointment in Nablus was refused entry. Yet again we spoke to O. who got him through after we had seen the soldiers turn him away twice.There were 14 trucks in line, waiting to enter Nablus. According to the drivers ,some of them had been waiting for 4 hours, but the checkpoint has its own mad timetable – totally dedicated to the great god Security. On the Nablus side, a new initiative had been launched: using marker pens, soldiers drew an X on the appendix to students’ identity cards. This way, they maintained, they would be able to identify them the next day, and if the students didn’t present a permit — over and above their ID and student cards — the soldiers, no matter who would be on duty, would see to it that they were not allowed through, because they had already been warned. A phone-call to the army spokesman’s office elicited the information that this is out of order: we filed a complaint with the “humanitarian” hotline and were promised that they would deal with the matter shortly. Meanwhile, the soldier in charge threatened that if they couldn’t mark the cards, then no one would be allowed through. But while we were there, everyone went through and the marking procedure wasn’t resumed. One positive item – as we made our way back, the temporary checkpoint had been dismantled.