Beit Iba, Shavei Shomron

Beit Iba, Shavey Shomron, 28.12 PMObservers: Ella H., Tami G. (reporting)Guest: Y.Summary: A violent clash with settlers in Shavey Shomron; in Beit Iba – a swift passage of the lines and a lot of detainees from the village Asira.Shavey Shomron:We had received a telephone warning from Dalia G. not to go to Shavey Shomron because of a settlers demonstration, but, when we arrived at Beit Iba, a Palestinian approached us and reported that the passage at Shavey Shomron was blocked for a long time and dozens of Palestinian vehicles were stuck there. So we decided, in any case, the two teams from Huwwara and Beit Iba to check out what was happening there. The line of the stuck vehicles was indeed long and the Palestinians were very happy to see our arrival. When we got closer to the checkpoint, we saw an Israeli bus with a lot of men and women settlers around it, fighting with the police and soldiers. In turned out that the group of Jonathan Bassi was in the bus for a tour of the area. The women settlers threw themselves on the road and wouldn't be removed, and the men were fighting furiously with the policemen and soldiers. Of course, we got a shower of curses and abuse in their colorful language. Hana C. and Horit P. from the Huwwara team, who had video cameras with them, recorded; Hana, who answered the verbal abuse, was thrown to the ground twice by a thug. (The whole incident was filmed by the Channel 2 team and broadcast yesterday on the evening news, including the throwing of Hana onto the road).The police asked us to move away a bit and then stones were thrown at us from behind the fence of Shavey Shomron. Since there were police in the area, we decided not to complain at the police. Incidently, one of the police there turned to us and said that we were doing "holy work", but asked us not to mix in with the removal of the settlers. We agreed to turn back only when the long line of Palestinian vehicles was allowed to move, about 20 minutes after we arrived. The Palestinians who assumed that we had resolved the traffic jam, blew on their horns and waved to us. Our friend Pithiah A., from the Huwwara team, felt ill after the clash with the settlers.Beit Iba:A huge election poster for Abu Mazen greeted us. The line at the entrance to Nablus disappeared, the Palestinians were confused, it wasn't clear to them why they were inspecting their documents. At the exit from Nablus, the lines quickly shortened. The inspection was very fast, the commander N. and the friendly representative of the DCO, were trying to wipe out any delays as quickly as possible. Around 16:00, the rush hour, a side line was opened for older people, "hatiarim (?)" in the language of the commander.Our lovely guest, Y., for whom this was the second visit to the checkpoint, brought a basked of sweets with her which she passed out to the children and everyone who was sent to the detainees section. Because of her, we saw a lot of smiling faces. The detainees, almost all of them, about 30 altogether while we were there, were from the village of Asira. There was an order from the soldiers, we found out, that anyone who lived in Asira should be detained until checked by the GSS. The GSS was looking for someone from Asira and thus all the residents of the village who got to the checkpoint were automatically turned back.Every half hour we urged the commander to get the answers from the GSS, but every time only part of the group was released, and another new group was added to those from Asira. One of them complained that he was fainting from hunger and the commander sent a soldier (medic?) to check him. He was a student of communications engineering from a-Najah University who hadn't eaten, after two examinations, and he was hurrying home for a hot meal prepared by his mother. "There are Polish mothers in Asira," Ella decided. The detainees from Asira were released in an hour or an hour and a half, and the ones who had arrived last were still there after we left at 17:00. This time there were no taxi drivers detained, and in fact we saw that the soldiers had material printed in Arabic about the election; our request to receive this material was turned down. The DCO representative said that he hadn't yet had a chance to look it over.