BEIT IBA, Sunday 2 May 2004 PMObservers: Aliyah S., Carol K., Shelly M., Yehudit P.(guest), Neomi L. (reporting) colour =red>Saturday was May Day and a university holiday, so the students all wanted to return to Nablus through the checkpoint today, Sunday [ the Palestinian university week runs from Saturday to Wednesday and students are only allowed freely through the checkpoints to and from Nablus on those days].We got there at around 13:00 and found hundreds of people waiting, including about 100 students, some of them there since 05:30 . There were more than 200 detainees, so many that it was impossible to count them. We were standing in the middle of this mass wondering where to begin, when soldiers came along with piles of ID cards — so many, that we wondered how long some of them had been held ready for distribution before the soldiers actually got round to returning them. Suddenly most of the detainees, the majority being students, were free to go.But about 60 detainees remained, plus the masses that were waiting to go through the checkpoint. We started calling everyone we could think of: the army spokesperson, the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) organization , the army’s “humanitarian” centre, the office of Knesset member Roman Bronfman, the army’s area commander I.P. and his spokesperson T. Slowly the soldiers started to process the remaining students and let some of the detainees go, whether this was due to our phone calls was unclear. An hour after we came, two representatives of B’Tselem — the Israel Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories — joined us in trying to help the detainees. Unfortunately, we didn’t do too well. Below are some examples: A teenage detainee who had been involved in an argument with the soldiers was punished by being made to sit alone , right in the glare of the sun. The soldiers claimed that he had hit them — which we found very hard to believe — and said he was lucky not have been arrested. They said they would keep him there until 18:30, to make sure he “learned his lesson”, but eventually they let him go at 17:30. Perhaps they tired of their educational efforts. Another teenager — a diabetic — had been waiting since 06:00, together with two others who were taking him to Nablus hospital for checks. We called the “humanitarian” centre which promised the matter would be taken care of, but the checkpoint soldiers heard nothing from them. We spoke to one of the soldiers and he let the sick youngster through, but not the two who were accompanying him. We did some more pleading and he eventually let them go too. It seems that our good relations with the soldiers helped more then the phone calls to the centre.About 10 students from An-Najah university, waiting since 08:00, decided by 15:00 that they would give up on Beit Iba and try their luck at Huwwara, “Maybe the soldiers there will be nicer…” A young man who needed some medical attention for his eyes but who lacked any permit and was, of course, within the critical and suspect 16-35 years-old age group, was detained, but released after we had a talk with the soldiers. Some hotel workers, speaking fluent English, were detained for a couple of hours. A Jerusalem clothing merchant with a blue [Israeli ] ID card, who brings goods to and from Nablus, was detained from 11:00 . Two police officers were called in to examine him and found all his documents in order: from their point of view he was free to go. But when they had driven away, one of the soldiers refused to hand the man back his car keys. After an hour and a half of this behaviour, we spoke to N. and he ordered the soldier to return the keys. Two teachers who work in Nablus, but live in the villages nearby , were detained and thus prevented from going to work. When we ask why, we are told “You don’t have to know everything”. They were detained for a few hours.All detainees (including some An-Najah students) who hailed from the villages of Talluza, Asira and Tubas were barred from entering Nablus and after a few hours of detention were sent back home (“seems as if there’s some real trouble there”). A 17-year-old youth had been detained since 10:00, after returning (with all the proper documents) from an orthopedic clinic in Nablus. His parents, who seemed to be in their 60s, were waiting for him on the other side of the checkpoint to take him home, and the mother was close to tears. Neither the PHR nor a senior army source to whom we turned was able to do anything to help him. At around 16:00 they let him go along with some others. The only answer we got to our entreaties was :”There’s an instruction from the general security services [Shin Bet] not to let anyone go before they are done with their checks!” (Six hours!!)A male nurse from the Rafidiya hospital (again in possession of all the proper documentation) was detained for about two hours on his way to work.. Again we were told that :”You don’t know everything”. He said that he went through the checkpoint daily, and had no idea what had happened today. A teacher from Asira who works in Nablus was detained, together with his younger brother, from 08:00 at 17:00 when the brother received his ID card back; but the teacher’s had been lost. We talked to N. who started looking for it and then promised that if it was not found, he would take care of the man in the next couple of days. But then, as we were exchanging telephone numbers so that we could stay in touch, the missing document turned up in the pocket of one of the morning shift soldiers who had gone off for his noon break. The teacher was overjoyed. Getting a new ID is a nuisance , and what is a person worth without this green or orange plastic card, which rarely helps, and yet , without it, one is completely lost.As we were getting ready to leave, an oncologist from a Nablus hospital drove up , the Red Crescent sign prominent on his windscreen. He lives in Deir-Sharaf and wanted to return home. “You don’t have a proper permit and you are not a doctor!” was the soldier’s harsh response. An argument started and the doctor was about to leave his car and go home on foot. He promised to have all the documents by the next day ( the District Coordinating Office [the army section that deals with civilian matters, and where the douments would be issued] was already closed ) and was determined to convince them that he was a doctor. We suggested he call the PHR, and finally N. let him through, in his car, “for the last time.” So… all the documents held by An-Najah students, medical staff, and teachers etc., and all the medical certificates clutched at by those who need them, are quite simply unable to break through the hardness of heart at the checkpoints. And faced with the dread spell of “security warnings”, all these pieces of paper , more precious than gold, become just that — pieces of worthless paper. When we left Beit Iba at 18:00, two detainees were still waiting.