Beit Iba

BEIT IBA, Wednesday 13 April 2005 PM Observers: Dafna B., Hadas T. (reporting)colour=red>15:15 – Jit JunctionToday there was no checkpoint here and traffic moved freely. 15:30 – We found one detainee on our arrival and he was , released after a short wait. There were only a few people at checkpoint. Buses with their passengers passed through from the direction of Nablus. Young men and women students were taken off at random and had to undergo the usual inspection at the checkpoint for pedestrians. Women, children and older people continued their journey on the bus. To our question as to why people were taken off the buses and made to go to the end of the line, thus losing their place on the bus, we were told that it was preferable that the bus and its passengers went on rather than have 40 people compelled to wait for one or more passengers who might have to be detained. The representative of the District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that handles civilian matters; it generally has representatives at the checkpoints ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians] checked the women against a list that he had in his hand. We wondered why they decided to let through a totally veiled young woman, when one could only see her eyes…..16:20 – There was now an additional detainee.16:35 – Another detainee was held , whom we will talk about later. 16:45 – The checkpoint was visited by the battalion commander and his entourage. One of them tried to wring from us a compliment for the "humanitarian" room, but was surprised to find that it was locked most of the time, and that generally speaking there was no medic in the area . He agreed with us that the narrow stairs going up to it may be suitable for young soldiers, but they certainly not for elderly people or mothers with babies and additional baggage, the very people most likely to need this service.16:50 – Another detainee. His detention annoyed the commander, T., since it was a mistake, the sort of mistake which happened every day, and which, despite his instructions, continued to go uncorrected. This small example was an admission that even the well-oiled system of identity checks has cracks and is subject to error ...16:55 – Two new detainees were released within half an hour.17:00 – The first detainee ( held at 16:20) was released and a new one arrived. Couples with children were allowed to pass through the women's' line. A young pregnant woman was separated from her husband. The woman went through, but all our efforts to persuade the soldiers to let her husband through with her, and with the many bags that the two of them were carrying, were in vain, until the commander arrived and showed rather more sensitivity and understanding of the absurdity of the situation.For the whole time, entrance to Nablus was free, and people weren't checked. A family seeking to go to Nablus in their car, for a memorial service for their father, was refused permission to travel with their car and went instead by taxi. Since the inspection station at the entrance to Nablus was not manned most of the time, and people were waiting for permission to go through, every now and then Raya passed on the information that passage was free and they had no need to wait. .17:30 – The detainee who had been waiting an hour (since 16:35) was taken to the isolation cell, blindfolded and handcuffed. One of the soldiers agreed that this was more with the aim of humiliating him than anything else. The soldiers claimed that he was a Hamas activist "with responsibility" [for terror acts] and the fact that he could have tried to get around a different way rather than sit quietly at the checkpoint didn't in any way shake their certainty that they had identified him correctly and that he must therefore be held. He was taken to the General Security Services [better known as the Shin Bet or Shabak] with a jeep escort.17:40 – The last of the detainees was freed. Traffic at the checkpoint leading out of Nablus was tailing off. 18:05 – A young man with a computer was asked to take it apart for inspection. The checkpoint was open until 19:00, and there were no special problems.19:05 – On the way to the car, an ambulance driver told us that he had brought a patient from Jenin and transferred him to an ambulance which had arrived from Nablus, because at Deir Sharaf -- at a distance of 500 metres from the previous checkpoint -- there was another unannounced roadblock. We counted 40 taxis and buses whose passengers were taken off for a repeat inspection. The reason: people were creeping around the side of the checkpoint and getting into vehicles after the checkpoint. When we asked how many of those who'd crept around had been caught at this road block, we were told that "this time" none had been caught.