Shave Shomron, Beit Iba Sunday 7.05.06. PMObservers: Alix W., Aliya S., Susan L. (reporting)Guest: Boaz A. Summary: An idiom is probably most useful in describing the reality we see in the Occupied Territories, and in bringing life to what we communicate (and bear witness to) week in, week out. “To put the squeeze” on somebody is a colloquial expression meaning “to lean on, bleed, put the screws on” a person — or a people. Colloquially, we can say categorically that the IDF is putting the squeeze on the Palestinians, something we saw in today’s shift over and over. The dictionary says it bluntly: “an aggressive attempt to compel acquiescence by the concentration or manipulation of power.” Precisely. But why stop with “putting the squeeze on”? There’s also the notion of squeezing out — to force someone (or a people) from their position — especially by making where they are intolerable, by intimidation or force. “Crush, squeeze, restrict, grip”: all are words which tell of making life intolerable, of application or exertion of pressure — be it economic, psychological or plain brute force — on somebody or some people to “give way, to acquiesce, to comply.” 14:00 — Shave ShomronWe decided today just to see what’s happening here, but since we happened on the incident described below, we stayed 45 minutes. Three soldiers are up in the military lookout tower, none of them helmeted. The concrete cubes on the road below make it hard for any vehicle to scramble around; the hideous new, ominous wall, sheltering the settlement looms above, offering some protective shade from the strong sun for the car and for us. The soldiers tell us, gratuitously, that we can’t pass, that the road is only for the army, and then proceed to pour insults on us (too ugly to repeat). Any questions we ask are responded to with, “just because.” 14:15 A minibus pulls up at the first block, a man steps out, bearing a neat pile of green IDs, each with permit clearly visible, walks towards the tower, is rudely told to go back. We ask the soldiers what is going on with the bus: “it’s not a bus, it’s a minibus, and they have to wait. God willing (!) it will take half an hour.” Nothing in sight, nobody doing anything except passing the time of day. The minibus is filled with 20 workers, returning to their villages, Sabastiya and Nisf Jubeil, from a day’s work with the Archaeological Authority of the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria (so says the large printed Hebrew sign on the windscreen). The men sit quietly, the air conditioning in the bus running full blast for the next 35 minutes! Their fluent and articulate Hebrew-speaking spokesman tells us that what we witness happens to them twice a day, at 04:00-05:00 in the morning on their way to work, and on their return home. Before they leave work, their civilian boss calls the authorities to check that all is clear for their way home. Does it help? No way. Although the base is right here, the soldiers, we’re told, change every four hours, don’t know them, and from the sample we’ve seen, probably put them through this kind of behavior twice a day. Yet the Palestinians are relieved: they have permits, they have jobs, they have a means to put food on the table for their families, so this kind of squeeze is nothing to them. Or so it appears. 14:30 Two of the soldiers from the tower leave, are joined by a gathering of at least 15 others, pouring out of the settlement base, with their kit bags, to board a safari which whisks them up the hill (but not along Rte 60) to Jenin. The soldier now left alone in the tower dons his helmet and, on our insistence that something be done with the busload of waiting men, asks for the license number of the vehicle which we give him (he can’t see from where he is) and calls in the number, while other soldiers passing behind the settlement gate ask us why we’re still there! 14:45 A soldier now approaches from the base, minus shirt, enters the bus, gathering all the IDs, looks at them slowly, takes one to the tower. After a conference between the two soldiers, but no calling in of ID, it is returned. 14:55 — the minibus goes on its way, as do we.Beit Iba 15:00 The continuing saga of the Huwwash Brothers, everybody, including father today, busy at work, the office now sporting two bunk beds for the under 30s who need to sleep here, since they can’t get home, ten minutes away: they are under age and the “bidul” (restrictions) are in full force, no exceptions for anybody.. But we shall try. Still, the newest restrictions, now two weeks old, we’re told by the soldiers at the checkpoint, are having their effect: fewer pedestrians, fewer vehicles. The latest invention of the army, the latest squeeze, is on and seems to be having an effect on the entire West Bank (see today’s Anabta, Jubara report). 15:40D., the commander, won’t let a truck through. True, the truck can go, but not the driver who is told to find another driver for the truckload of building materials! “If he goes, then he can’t return.” Once again, the horrendous system of restriction is explained: from Tulkarm, Jenin and surrounding villages (which aren’t always known to the soldiers) nobody under 30 can move. A busload of students is coming out of Nablus. The driver lets them off, two soldiers check the few men who stand by the bus, as the horde of young women, grinning hugely, pass by us through the humanitarian line, having not been checked at all! At the checkpoint, for the first time in ages, two vehicle lanes coming out of Nablus are open, the spikes which lay across the roadway cast on the side – for now. But it’s too soon to shout for joy. Only two soldiers working desultorily make no difference to the flow of traffic. Sparse in the extreme at this hour going into Nablus, by the time we leave it is almost up to the carpentry workshop. 16:00 A soldier checking pedestrians seems to take out his boredom by playing games with passing Palestinians. He stands behind the concrete boulder, looks at an ID, then lifts it above his head for the Palestinian to reach up and get it. All without a word. There are other psychological “games” he plays. A university student passes, bearing the usual load of books, the usual a fashionable shoulder bag. “What you got there, a bomb or gas?”in English). She retorts angrily, in kind, and correctly, “What are you talking about?” “Squeeze: the aggressive attempt to compel acquiescence by the manipulation of power.” 16:35– the dirt path leading over the hills from near the junction of Routes 60 and 57 is still in use, its entry perilous in the extreme. A rolling checkpoint just beyond the junction, leaving little space to pass — the first we’ve seen today.