BEIT IBA, Monday, March 24 2004 PM Observers: Shalva K., Michal P., Yudit A. colour=red>There were six temporary checkpoints on the way to Beit Iba.13:15 At the entrance to Azun.The gate’s open, but there is a temporary checkpoint. There ‘s a queue of 10-15 cars at the exit from the village. Soldiers check everyone entering or leaving (we don’t stop).13:20 Just before Funduk.A ‘small’ temporary checkpoint (we drive on). Just one minute after we’ve left Funduk, near Imtin Farata, a large-scale temporary checkpoint has been set up. Palestinians may not cross northwards. There are multiple alerts, rifles are cocked. Because of the alerts, a bus from Ramallah via Tulkarm is refused permission to proceed. The checkpoint’s commander tells the driver to make a U-turn and return to Ramallah. Both driver and passengers prefer to wait until the checkpoint is opened. Three hours later, the driver has had enough and decides to leave – if any passengers want to wait, so be it. We arrive at the height of an argument. The bus is now forbidden to drive ahead, and forbidden to drive back.The commander offers an erudite explanation, “If we allow the driver to turn back after he refused to do so, it’s as if we’re awarding him a prize, we’re backing down and knocking the authority of our soldiers.”From the north, close to 40 cars are in a stationary line – everything’s come to a halt for an hour or more, as usual, because of a single ‘stubborn’ car at the head of line.About 20 pedestrians are being meticulously checked, raising their shirts while twirling around, as if in a fashion-show. Trucks and people arrive from the village, some get through, others are kept back. Settler’s cars and buses drive through freely, their drivers and passengers hurling a fine range of curses at us.13:50 After we intervene, the bus is finally allowed to turn around and go back. Ten cars at the Jitt checkpoint.14:00 Another checkpoint at the Tulkarm junction, with long lines of buses and trucks from all directions. An army jeep blocks the road up to Shavei Shomron.14:25 Beit Iba: high alert – there’s a tense, fraught atmosphere. Palestinian friends from the checkpoint note our absence after Sheikh Yassin’s assassination, and tell us it’s important that we come. Hundreds of people, including students, push and shove in the queue for hours. The officer O. manages to gain control by shouting; other soldiers, with cocked rifles, are less successful. People constantly cross the plastic line, and the soldiers halt traffic through the checkpoint. If people cause a disturbance, their papers are confiscated and they are taken to wait at the side.A soldier confiscates a girl’s student card because she hasn’t renewed it (she didn’t have the NIS 30 needed to renew it). Another student’s card was ripped because the soldier claimed it was forged. There were more cases of forged papers (my mother managed to stay alive during the Holocaust because she had papers forged by the Zionist underground).Everyone is checked by the metal-detector, one by one.15:15 Engineers arrives to examine the area with a view to building a permanent checkpoint. The line gets out of control, some of the Palestinian try to restore order, unsuccessfully. Shalva brings a megaphone and order returns. Then there’s an alert, soldiers pour into the checkpoint from the right, with their weapons at the ready (they had just got a report from Huwwara about the child with the explosives). We’re warned to keep at a distance from the Palestinians, but we don’t. An employee of the Palestinian health administration has all his papers confiscated because they find a photograph of Arafat in his belongings. The soldiers deny this is the reason, Hanna tries to help and continues her efforts from home. An ambulance arrives with an elderly woman in a bad way. It’s the same old story – she is allowed to through, but the son accompanying her is refused. [He goes through] only after three hours of checks.My impression is that both Palestinians and soldiers feel they’re controlled by the whims of a megalomaniac, with the former paying the higher price…17:50 On the way back, the entire bus is checked at the Jitt checkpoint. We meet people who have already spent three hours at Beit Iba – and now who can tell how many more checkpoints lay ahead of them before they get home?