Beit Iba

Beit Iba Monday PM, 7.2.05Observers: Riva B., Daphne P. Hagar K. (reporting)At the beginning of our shift, the traffic was light and the soldiers worked efficiently. So we obeyed the commander, N., who asked us to stand behind an imaginary line a few meters from the inspection station.The detainees were released relatively quickly, not so those being punished (when we complained about the punishments during these days of "easing of restrictions", N. explained to us that that was what they used to do in school too. Indeed, great good fortune that the IDF takes it upon itself to educate the population in the territories).Among those being punished were 3 taxi drivers who made trouble (they block the road and bother us when we are directing traffic at the checkpoint, one of the soldiers explained). One of the drivers, new to the business, was bitter: "There is no line, there is no sign, how can I know that I am forbidden to stand there?" He is right. But the imaginary line is a holy line, and whoever crosses it, is punished. The punishment is meted out – once again – not by the soldiers at the checkpoint, but someone else, invisible, who went by in a jeep, confiscated the IDs of the drivers and went on his way. The documents are gone, the drivers are detained, and our request to try and locate the documents is met with rejection and anger at our meddling in the soldiers' work. Only A., from the DCO, tried as much as he was able to help, but with no results.Among the drivers was someone who took passengers from Nablus to Jenin. He made a u-turn at the checkpoint, crossed the line which was allowed and was therefore detained. His passengers, who had apparently already paid for a ride all the way to Jenin, waited for him more than an hour and a half outside, in the cold, an elderly man among them. We tried to bring the soldiers' attention to the problem, to this kind of collective punishment, but they were deaf to our complaints. Only at 16:00 (about 2 hours later) did N. call up and check out the matter, and at 16:20 a jeep with the company commander arrived with the documents.Among those being punished was a young man who "was insolent" to the soldiers: while he was going through the turnstile, they asked him to move back and he turned back with a movement that they considered "provocative" (so claimed N., we didn't see). Of course, such insolence is totally unacceptable – not in school and not at the checkpoint (on the difference between them N., apparently an educator, wasn't willing to think) and he was "sent to the corner", i.e., to the detention shed, for a little less than an hour. Aside from this, the traffic was moving reasonably well, though by the afternoon there was some pressure from the direction of the exit from Nablus. In spite of our attempt to cooperate and be patient, the restriction on our movement ("Get back! the line!) didn't change, which prevented us over and over again from doing our job. Every attempt to check out what was happening, to speak with the detainees or with a soldier, with people in line who were having trouble, and other times when we tried to help them (and sometimes even succeeded) brought in its train a shower of shouts and threats to call the police. Sarah promised to clear up the issue again. In addition, all the soldiers were forbidden to speak to us, including A. from the DCO (though he transgressed the order over and over, since it was given to him without any authority).On the way back, we met a taxi driver who had worked for 10 years in Tel Aviv and bought a taxi 3 years ago, since there was no other work. "You would think that when there are reserve soldiers it should be better – the behavior more humane, that they would see that we are human beings, that they would act more like human beings. I never thought that it would be worse with the reserves than with the regular soldiers." We also hadn't thought so.