Beit Iba

Beit Iba, Sunday, 7.5.06 AMObservers: Racheli M, Zvia S (reporting) 07:00 we pass the new checkpoints with concrete barriers at Jit junction.Beit Iba 07:10 – masses of people milling around, soldiers running... Many scores of men and women at the checkpoint. In the pen, a youngster with his hands cuffed from behind and rifle cleaning cloth tied over his eyes. The soldiers are shouting for joy: we are filtering out our enemies (the words of Sergeant N.). In the women’s line, a lot of young girls, notebooks in hand, on their way to university in Nablus – all learning English, with a final exam today, so they say. All the women who already arrived half an hour ago from Tulkarm or Jenin districts are not being allowed to pass. They are excited, shouting, pleading – no one is listening. We phone the brigade spokesman – no answer. The brigade war room – "We are forbidden to talk to you." The DCO – songs from the 1980s on their voice box. There is no one to talk to. Meanwhile, more and more girls are arriving. We already counted 25. The soldiers drive them back, they return to the line and try again and again. We admire their stubbornness. Finally a soldier answers our questions: yesterday and today, there is quarantine of Tulkarm and Jenin and they are not allowed to reach Nablus because youngsters between 20-30 may not pass. Women too? Yes. Naomi suggests that we phone MK Ran Cohen. We talk to him and explain the uproar at the checkpoint. He promises to try and talk to somebody in the higher command. 08:30 – nothing is happening. The girls refuse to leave the checkpoint. First Sergeant Uri – bespectacled and irritated, pulls out a can from a box – apparently tear gas – and with red face and screams he begins to run towards the girls, brandishing the can. The girls panic, so do we – he looks like someone running amok, to beware of.The girls back off to the concertinas at the entrance to the checkpoint where they crowd around. We hint to them not to give in. Slowly, very slowly, they return to the line and again try to pass.Another conversation with Ran Cohen. He says he is doing all he can, but doesn’t know if it will help. They promise nothing. I phone again to the brigade spokesman, he stutters and contends that “the quarantine is decided on by smart people at division, who know much better than me what is needed for the security of the state.” At this point I couldn’t hold back any longer, and I poured out all my anger on him – everything, all the frustrations from the situation, with no mercy for him or me. 09:00 – they take the handcuffed youngster behind a building – “the humanitarian centre” – Till then we had not succeeded in making contact with him. Every time that Racheli tried to approach the pen, the soldiers screamed at her and threatened to call the police. 09:30 – N. suddenly announces that all the women from Tulkarm and Jenin can pass through to Nablus (they have stopped threatening the security of the state???!!!). Then he comes over to us: “Tell me, you enjoy this situation? You probably think that it’s because of you that we are letting them go to Nablus. No, it’s because we wanted it..." 09:40– Zacharia phones and tells us that a father is waiting with a five year old girl at Tapuah junction: they need to get to Tel Hashomer Hospital for heart surgery for the child. He asks us to help by taking them. We are “happy” to do something “human” after the frustration of the checkpoint.10:00 Tapuah junction – we collect Mohami D. and his little daughter.11:00 – we arrive at Tel Hashomer. Anyone who wants to enquire about the child, or visit – they will apparently be two weeks in the Children’s Ward.