Shave Shomron, Beit Iba

Shave Shomron, Beit Iba, Sunday, 14.05.06 PM Observers: Aliya S., Alex W., Susan L. (reporting)Guest: Amelia T. Summary Those of us who read thrillers, or those of us who've been subjected to the seemingly never-ending news about the organization of a tight, effective worldwide noose around bin Laden and his movement, are used to the idea of a "noose tightening around" somebody. Last week we saw the IDF putting the squeeze on the Palestinians. This week, a sign of things to come, perhaps, as the noose tightens. Today Israel's High Court of Justice effectively approved the most racist legislation ever in its history: the unification of families on the basis of national belonging -- Arab-Palestinian. Meanwhile the establishment of an independent Palestine seems more and more likely to resemble an Indian reservation. So, today's shift resembled, more and more, the makings of a bad Cowboys and Indians movie - with military materiel, of which there was plenty on the roads today, instead of horses. 13:20 -- on the road from Qalqiliya, a hidden Hummer in the Queen Anne's lace/cow parsley growing tall alongside the roadway, past Azzun on the south side of the road. 13:45 Jit Junction. A rolling checkpoint, but there’s a very short line (one taxi, two trucks) at this hour. Two hours later, we're told by taxi drivers at Beit Iba, that it's very bad. No rolling checkpoint at the junction of 60/57, but the entry to the makeshift roadway, parallel to Shave Shomron, has been covered with fresh earth, and there's not a vehicle in sight. Shavei Shomron14:10 -- new tarmac has been laid on the roadway, close up to the wall, completing this monstrous structure. One helmeted soldier on the tower at the entrance to the settlement tells us that this is no longer a checkpoint, gives it another euphemistic name, adding that nobody can pass, even humanitarian cases. We realize it's the same time as our visit here last week and, as if on cue, two minibuses from the Archaeological Authority of the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria (so says the large printed Hebrew sign on the windscreen) appear, complete with wheelbarrows on their roofs! This time two buses, instead of one, but again, the well practiced spokesman approaches the tower, two tidy piles of green IDs, with permits visibly sticking out, one set for each bus in hand. The soldier calls out that there's no authorization for them today, that he has first to call the DCO's office, which he does, and a couple of minutes later, he steps down from the tower, glances over all the IDs in the shade of the looming concrete wall, hands them back and goes back to the tower. The buses now move towards the additional plastic barriers located beyond the maze of concrete cubes across the roadway: the soldier comes back from his post and moves one aside to let the buses pass. The whole incident takes not much more than five minutes, proving one again, that an individual soldier's behavior can make all the difference at a checkpoint. 14:25 -- on the other hand, the next incident illustrates that the rules are firm: a black Mercedes, complete with medical sign on the windscreen, approaches from the Jenin side of the checkpoint, makes its way around the plastic roadblocks to the center of the checkpoint, but the driver can neither see nor hear the soldier in the tower above. The soldier comes down, speaks loudly: "I know you're a doctor, what do you want?" There's some discussion; there's no way the doctor can get to the Nablus hospital where he needs to be, and his car turns back whence it came. 14:45 Deir SharafWe stop at the mini market to see what's going on with the economic situation. The shelves seem lined with fanciful boxes of Cadbury's chocolate - memories of better days? The staples are in short supply, and the owner tells how it's harder and harder to get supplies, that gas only came back to the area on Friday evening (12.05) -- a theme we heard over and over -- and since he can't go into Nablus or Tulkarm, he has to pay to have provisions brought from the checkpoint. He points to a stack of cold drink bottles, standing by the entryway, numbering no more than one hundred, saying sadly, "I paid 40 shekels - just from the checkpoint" (the checkpoint is perhaps one kilometer from the store). 14:55 Beit IbaHuwwash Brothers. Our attempt to get special permits from the DCL office for the brothers under the age of 30 is still in process. They still sleep in the workshop, although one came around "over the hills," has only just arrived, taking four hours to get from home in Nablus. 15:15 -- as we leave the carpentry workshop, we're approached by a group of men, one of whom we soon learn is Jihad Tahib, the owner of the largest Tulkarm bus company. (The logo from the side of the buses is familiar to all of us). Buses are not allowed in or out of Nablus! As of two days ago! Jihad shows us that he has permits for 47 buses, the permits are all in order, are good until 30.06. He says he's been at the checkpoint all day, is frustrated, angry, and the situation is grim. A call to Huwwarra confirms that it's the same there. The noose is tightening - for what? When we leave Jihad is still there. understandably frustrated in the extreme. The checkpoint area is, not surprisingly, filled with scores and scores of yellow taxis. 15:35 -- we make our way towards the checkpoint proper, not without difficulty, since the taxis take up the approach area, and a man, two toddlers at his side, his wife holding what looks like a newborn, stops to say to us bitterly, "No gas, no work, what do they want?" Indeed. The noose is tightening - for what? In the detention compound, two young men, and another in the lockup. We can't approach the compound, there's barbed wire in the way. The second lieutenant, R., who's in command, admits, without any compunction, that they're all there "for punishment for two hours" as they tried to pass the checkpoint "in other ways." We make phone calls to the humanitarian center of the army who promise to look into something that, they agree, is not right. We make phone calls to the DCO's office: no response, and nobody appears from the DCO. 15:55-- the two young men in the compound are let out, but sent back to Nablus. The young man in the cell calls to us, in good Hebrew, that he's had two hours in the compound, and now nearly two in the cell. The elderly driver of a bus, stopped in the middle of the roadway of the checkpoint is brought to the commander by two Hebrew speaking taxi drivers, begging the commander to let him get home to Qalqiliya: he's not well. The commander is adamant. The bus and driver need to go back to Nablus, can't leave. 16:00 -- at the vehicle area, there's little or nothing to do. There are very few vehicles. No buses, of course, a couple of trucks, sometimes the line from Nablus has no vehicles in it at all. The same on the other side. Only two soldiers. But there are a lot of soldiers at the checkpoint today, as many as eight or ten in the central area at most times. Two soldiers eat and drink, bother not at all to deal with the pedestrians waiting to be checked. When they do, they shout, gratuitously, in their pidgin Arabic, for people to approach, "one by one." 16:15 -- there are again two young men in the detention compound, the same one in the cell as when we arrived. Captain E., whom we've seen before at the checkpoint (unlike the other soldiers here today) arrives and, though he spends an inordinate amount of time on the phone, we manage to tell him about the young men being punished. He is seen talking to R., and to other soldiers. 16:30 -- a soldier approaches the cell, releases the young man, who emerges and is polite and unruffled even after two hours in the detention compound, then two hours in the cell, with the western sun hitting the cell straight on. But R. is still holding his ID which he intends to return only when the young man is seen going back towards Nablus. Again, as in a bad western, there's a standoff. We learn that the young man is a student at An-Narjah University, that he's studying economics, and that he passes the checkpoint every day, morning and night. 16:40 -- E., the captain returns to the central checking area, again goes to R., who's somewhere in the vicinity, and the student calls out that although his ID says Nablus, he actually lives in Qalqiliya. There, as they say, is the rub! But E. shows his magnanimity, pats the student on the back, makes R. give him his ID, and he's on his way home. A lone blackbird can be heard singing in the stillness of all this outrage Suddenly, high above, on the white cliffs above the quarry, a bevy of soldiers scurrying about, their silhouettes dark against the bright light. Cowboys and Indians? A very bad western indeed. And the noose is tightening. As we make our way back to our car, we're approached by a group of three men from Jenin who want to tell us of a very bad rolling checkpoint which appears early each morning at a junction, possibly Az-Zababida, and holds up everybody bound for work (presumably in Nablus) for hours. (See today's Anabta report for confirmation of this from an ambulance driver).