SARRA, BEIT IBA, Wednesday 9 March 2005 PM Observers: Sarah K., Naomi L. and Dafna B. (reporting) colour=red>Summary: The blockade at the village of Tell has been transformed into a checkpoint. With all that means, a checkpoint is still better than a total closure. A surprise roadblock at Beit Iba, 200 metres beyond the checkpoint. Olive oil as inflammatory material!Sarra15:00 – The checkpoint was empty except for five soldiers. During our entire stay, only two taxis passed through. Perhaps this was because of the time of day, or perhaps it was related to the opening of the blocked road from Tell to Nablus: in place of the blockade there’s now a checkpoint. In any case, this road shortens the drive to Nablus which now “only” has that one checkpoint which travellers must go through, whereas the road used until now meant stops for checkpoints at Sarra and Beit Iba. The reserve soldiers on duty were bored and tried to get us into an argument to justify their presence here.A truck driver from Sarra complained that his truck was in Nablus since he had a permit only for Beit Iba and not for the checkpoint in front of his native village. We asked the soldiers what happens if a taxi driver from Sarra has a permit only for Beit Iba and not for the Sarra checkpoint. They were quite clear that he would not be allowed through. There was no question about it. And how could he get to Beit Iba? Really, but really, this didn’t interest them…16:00 – There was a surprise roadblock, 200 metres before the Beit Iba checkpoint formed by a military jeep and a group of Border Police. There were three detainees who’d been there for half an hour after being taken out of a taxi that had continued on its way; the three were waiting for the GSS inspection [detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 or 35 who have no passage permits; recently, young women, too, have been detained. The detainees’ ID details are phoned through to the General Security Services (GSS, also known as the Shabak or the Shin Bet, the Hebrew acronym for the GSS) for checking against a central list of security suspects and the answers are then relayed back to the checkpoints. This cumbersome process can take considerable time, and that can be prolonged even more if the soldiers wait to accumulate a batch of ID cards before passing them on to the GSS , or if they behave in a similarly tardy manner at the end of the process, waiting until they have a batch of GSS clearances before they release individual detainees. Meanwhile, the detainees are virtually prisoners at the checkpoint where the soldiers retain the ID cards until the entire process is completed.] . The Border Police were also checking the ID cards of passengers travelling on a bus from Qalqiliya, which was standing at the side of the road. The driver claimed the soldiers always picked on his bus, as though it was “marked”. Indeed, the whole time that we were there, about one hour, only one taxi was inspected. All the rest, taxis and buses, went through easily. When another army jeep stopped, we asked: “Why do you need a roadblock 200 metres after people have already been harassed, detained, inspected, etc.?” The answer we got was totally ridiculous : Beit Iba is full, it is a 2-way checkpoint and it is difficult to check everybody…crazy! All the inspections could be and in fact are done there, as we saw later. We called the brigade’s second in commander and asked him the same question. He agreed that there was no need for this and promised to deal with the problem. Twelve of the bus passengers were detained for an additional inspection, and the bus went off without them.Meanwhile, a police vehicle arrived and announced on a loud speaker that we must move to a spot three metres from the road…we moved. Eleven of the bus passengers were released only 10 minutes after their bus had driven away. One detainee remained, upset. Why him? What did they have against him? He told us, in a shaking voice, that he was “clean”. Had never done anything! One could understand his alarm. The three detainees from Asira were also released. They weren’t checking any more. Although we wanted to get to Beit Iba, we decided not to leave him. And within another 15 minutes he, too, was on his way. It was worth the wait, if only to see the smile of relief on his face. How frightening the occupation machinery is ! When he’d gone, the jeep drove off . Since I had just called the brigade second in command to remind him that he’d promised to take care of the matter , I called again to say that the roadblock had now been removed; he said that had happened at his instructions. OK! Fine!.Beit Iba 16:45 – There was lively movement out of Nablus. The men’s’ line was crowded and there was a lot of pushing in the direction of the shack. The turnstile wasn’t working. Everyone, men, women, and the elderly – all were being checked. The soldiers worked quietly, just one soldier, A., went over from time to time and shoved the men violently backward. He also shouted (in Hebrew, naturally) at anyone who made a mistake and went to the line meant for women and the elderly (which doesn’t have a sign), telling them to go back. During our hour there, there were four detainees all of whom had their details passed on immediately: one was released after 10 minutes, but the three others, students who had an exam tomorrow and were in a hurry to get home and prepare, were still there after we left. We didn’t take their telephone numbers as it seemed that the checkpoint commander was anxious to release them as soon as possible.One of the detainees asked me to take a bag across to his brother who was standing on line and had not been checked yet. When I took it, the soldier, A., ran after me: “What are you doing? Give it back to him right away! Do you know what is in it?” “What?”, I asked. “Inflammatory materials!!!” he announced. I looked inside. There were four bottles of olive oil. I told him, but he didn’t give up. “Even olive oil can contain material than can incite!” And I wasn’t allowed to give the “dangerous material” to his brother.Later, two children went through the checkpoint. One of the detainees knew one of them and called out to him. He apparently wanted the child to tell people at home that he was detained, so that they wouldn’t worry. A. was again called upon to save his country. Shouting, he drove the children away and wouldn’t let them come near. When we tried to intervene, he said that the detainee was passing “dangerous material” over to the children and that it was forbidden for him to talk with anyone, even at a distance. All the rest of the soldiers nodded in agreement, including the checkpoint commander.