Beit Iba

Beit Iba, Sunday, 29.1.06 PM Observers: Alix W., Aliya S., Susan L. (reporting)Guests: Ann S., Zalman A.Summary: Dictionary definitions:Disturb: upset worry agitate bother scare alarm annoy get in the way mess up unsettleDisturbing: troubling upsetting disconcertingDisturbance: trouble commotion riot uproar annoyance intrusion disruptionWe're familiar with "do not disturb" signs hung on hotel door handles. Today, our shift became familiar with this notion as conveyed to us by soldiers who made no bones about the fact that we "disturbed" them at their work. More ominously, at the checkpost at Beit Iba, an old, moth eaten copy of a 24.10.2004 army memorandum had been posted where last week hung the flag of the blue and white women of Haifa: "MachsomWatch women are not to disturb soldiers, are to stand at the side, etc." 13:30 QalqiliyaA long, long line of vehicles, trucks and settler cars at the checkpoint leading out of the West Bank.13:50 Jit Junction A long, long line of vehicles, going round all the way beyond the dirt path to Sarra: in our line of vision 17 up to there. Two soldiers checking vehicles on their way westwards. We park our car by their jeep, go to the other side of the road, greet the soldiers and are immediately barked at, "No one will pass while you're here." He knows perfectly well who and what we are, keeps to his word, and when A., the DCO representative arrives in his jeep a few minutes later, they huddle, and the latter agrees with the first soldier: "if he's the commander of the checkpoint, he has the right to say what he wants." Indeed! And this is the DCO representative!! (We've noted that, over the months, A. has done less and less to facilitate anybody's passage.) Instead of heading in the direction of Beit Iba, we drive east for a kilometer or so, off into the hills, counting 30 vehicles in line, waiting to be checked. We turn back, then stop and talk to some of the drivers, "How many more checkpoints will there be?" Some have been in line for half an hour, but this is not the first rolling checkpoint (nor the last) for today. One man has been on the road since 4:30 in the morning when he waited two and a half hours at Jubarra (to be checked with morning shift there).14:15 Junction of Rtes. 60 and 57A Zelda stands across the middle of the road, two soldiers checking vehicles going south: a line of ten vehicles up to the junction itself.14:25 Beit IbaOnce again, it's quiet. Less pedestrians, less vehicles than in the past. Sandbags have now been put in place protecting the soldier who mans the concrete boulder, gun at the ready, both at the main checkpost and at the vehicle "position." At the main checkpoint, one of the visitors is immediately told that he cannot take photos of the "position." Desultory checking, few pedestrians. One of the few people who look cheerful today, a teacher coming from the An Najah Unviersity in Nablus, tells us that it's registration time, and that she looks forward hopefully to the new semester.Posted on the concrete pillbox in the center, a torn and faded copy of a stamped 24.10.2004 directive, that MachsomWatch women are not to disturb the soldiers at work, and that they are to stand on the side. It is, indeed, in our face, and, we note, in place of the little plastic flag stuck there by the Haifa women in blue and white who "appreciate" soldiers. Note phone number: 0505 274 28515:00 Vehicle checking goes smoothly, about five to seven minutes for a full size bus. At most there are three to four vehicles at any one time in either direction. How can there be more? Everybody is stuck at rolling checkpoints dotted along their way!Sometimes individuals are taken off buses, e.g., a bearded man we recognize as frequently passing the checkpoint here, in Muslim clerical garb. His ID is looked at over again and again, compared over and over again with the list of numbers the soldiers hold, as if they expect it to speak to them, saying there's something radically wrong. The ID is given back, the mini bus goes on its way.15:10 A full size bus passes. The IDs of some, but not all, are collected. One young man is led to the main checkpost, his ID compared with data on the computer, the soldier strides off, back to the bus, forgetting that the young man is without his ID. A woman with huge packages stashed inside the belly of the bus is taken off the bus, she waits for the soldiers to pull them out. One does so, two others look on.15:45 Junction of Rtes. 60 and 57An hour and a half later, the same: a Zelda, about the same number of vehicles, but we note that a bus at the end of the line turns round and heads back towards Anabta/Tulkarm.Just west of the junction, an accident, a van trying to head over the earth mounds placed on the north side of the road. It's stuck, of course. We stop the car, looking back at what's going on. By the roadway, two other vans and a blue police jeep, a young man in handcuffs and a policeman waving and shouting for us to move on. Since we don't wish to "disturb" the authorities, we move on to Anabta.