Anabta, Beit Lid, Jit

Anabta, Beit Lid (roadblock), Jit Junction – Wednesday PM, 7 June 2006 Watchers: Deborah L., Dalia P., Dvorka A. (reporting) Summary:An extremely hard day for the residents of Jenin, Tulkarm and the surroundings, who were allowed to leave by car in the morning on the understanding that the quarantine was over -- till, at noon, they discover that they cannot return home. The army’s contention was that there’s an alert to search for a particular suspect (male). We do not know exactly what happened there, but it was completely clear that the orders to the soldiers in the field were changing every few minutes, that the inspection of vehicles and people was blatantly inefficient, and the soldiers’ attitude was on the level of indifference, arrogance and vulgarity. It was frustrating to learn that we did not succeed in achieving anything. We left for Huwwarra as the Ephraim Brigade commander, Aharon H., informed us that all traffic in the area was stopped. “Cessation of Life” policy in practice.15:10 Anabta From the north 15 vehicles wait a while, and some 20 from the direction of Tulkarm and Jenin pass almost without inspection. We were surprised to see that there were only a few cars and the waiting time was short. But a soldier at the checkpoint told us that shortly before there had been pressure and vehicles waited three hours because of the search for the wanted suspect.15:25, Beit Lid Junction – a rolling [i.e. mobile, temporary] checkpoint. Clearly the checkpoint which had been operating at Anabta was now at the Beit Lid Junction. Thirty-nine cars from the north and twenty in the opposite direction. A lieutenant stood at the junction and almost singlehandedly, and slowly, checked the IDs of the men in the cars. He said that, since 05:00 this morning they have been hunting a suspect, and checking everyone coming out of Beit Lid. (Nadim and Batsheva, who passed here on the morning shift, and we when we passed earlier had not seen any checkpoint on the spot). An additional soldier from time to time assisted the lieutenant, though he told us that he does not belong to the checkpoint team, but is only trying to help. A jeep stood facing towards Beit Lid all the time that we were there. Two soldiers were sitting in it and, without descending, were examining and speaking to the few Palestinians coming from the direction of Beit Lid.The checking and flow of passage in both directions were painfully slow (and certainly annoying for the Palestinians). The lieutenant circulated and carried out the inspections very slowly, and seemed content with his sole control.One of the taxi drivers driving south told us that he had left Tulkarm at 11:30 and since then had been stopped at Balaa, Anabta and now Beit Lid.From 15:40 we repeatedly informed the IDF’s Moked center [Hebrew: focal point; it operates a hotline for alerts about passage problems] about the prolonged wait and inefficiency of the inspections, but to no avail. At 16:40 we contacted Aharon H., the commander of the Ephraim Brigade, who told us that he had at that moment ordered a stoppage of traffic at all junctions in the area. This is the policy known as“Cessation of Life.” People in the cars were boiling over with anger and, without mincing words, told us what they thought of the government of Israel and Israelis. (Among other things, somebody said: “worse than Nazis”). There was nothing we could do, so we left. Before that we took the phone number of S, the driver of the 40th car in line. At 18:20, when we called him, he told us that he was six cars away from inspection at the junction. He explained that from time to time they let traffic flow, then again stop the line for some time.16:50, Jit Junction There were soldiers and police. Only two cars waiting to pass.We continued on to Huwwarra, where there had been no morning shift. [See report under Nablus]