Jit, Deir Sharaf, Beit Iba

BEIT IBA, Thursday 21 October 2004 AM Ofra K., Micky F., Yudit A.-D (reporting) colour=red> In summary: There was only very sparse traffic, but the detainees' area was very crowded. The checkpoint commander's behaviour was rough and humiliating.08:50 — Jit Junction There were 10 vehicles waiting to go through from the Tulkarm direction. All the passengers had been taken off a bus so that they could be checked. Four vehicles were waiting to go through in the opposite direction. A car filled with members of Women in Green [a self-styled "patriotic" women's organization, set up in opposition to the left-wing, peace-oriented Women in Black, it ardently supports and draws much of its membership from the settlements in the Occupied Territories ] tail-gated us alarmingly just as a second car, filled with settlers and flying a flag, almost blocked our way. The Women in Green flashed provocative smiles at us as they asked whether they could help us in any way. We made no answer, but carried on, determined not to be provoked.09:00 — Deir Sharaf There was no line of Palestinians waiting to go through. 09:15 — Beit Iba We successfully asked Dalia Bassa [the civil administration officer responsible for coordinating medical services in the Occupied Territories] to help in getting passage permission for a young man who'd been refused permission to go through after presenting a referral to a Nablus hospital which had yesterday's (rather than today's) date . There were almost no Palestinians going through the checkpoint , but there were some 30 people in the detainees' area [detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 or 35 who have no passage permits; their 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]. Just as we arrived, answers came through from the GSS. Those who were refused permission to proceed were sent off home in a very rough manner. Those who had GSS clearance were nevertheless detained for another two hours – as an "educational" measure!!There were three taxis drivers among the detainees, their crime – they'd crossed the line designed to keep them at a certain respectful distance from the checkpoint proper. The checkpoint commander insisted that they'd blocked the lane used by ambulances .12:00 — There were still 20 detainees, some waiting since the morning, others added more recently.