Beit Iba

Beit Iba Tuesday PM, 1.02.05Observers: Lee A., Racheli B-A., Chana C. (reporting)Guests: Billi M., journalistA gray, rainy day. The checkpoint is operating normally. The detainees in the shed are not kept too long. Nevertheless, the puddles around it are deep and the necessity of walking carefully on a narrow and muddy path makes the atmosphere even more chilling. The repetitive tape with its limited vocabulary and the constant shouting of "irge" and "waare" add to the threatening feeling. The female soldier can't stand up to the pace of the women arriving. The journalist, B., offers to help her. The DCO representative, N., hears this suggestion and joins the soldier. In this way he takes care of the jam of women at the turnstiles.Everything is normal, no special occurrences except for a "jumping the checkpoint", done by a young woman known to us as mentally deficient, who ran forward without paying any attention to the soldiers and the people at the checkpoin who tried to stop her. This race happened in the pouring rain. Luckily, there weren't any accompanying shots in the air. We tried to explain to the soldiers that this was nothing more than a disturbed mental state, known and documented officially, and that the female soldier "didn't understand" why a mentally disturbed girl wasn't behaving correctly. Amazingly, one of the Palestinian women caught the girl and gave her the traditional treatment for the mentally ill, which consists of slapping and pulling out hair. The female soldier – who by now understood what was going on – rescued the girl from her caretaker. After a while, the local military authorities internalized the incident and the girl, who was apparently a minor and had no papers, went on her way.