Beit Iba

Beit Iba, Sunday, 8.10.06 AMObservers: Nirit T, Sara K (reporting) Thin traffic on the roads.Restrictions on exit from Nablus, males aged 16-25.No restrictions on entry to Nablus. Quite a few students going in today.Many taxis on both sides of Beit Iba Checkpoint create competition between drivers, who approach the soldiers’ positions, and from time to time a few are caught and detained as punishment for crossing the lines.Thorough inspection of bags and parcels. 07:40 Jit Junction almost empty. Two cars being checked in the line on the east side in westerly direction.But shortly beyond the junction, on Route 57, a rolling checkpoint with five cars waiting. Traffic light. 07:50 Beit Iba – the checkpoint is relatively quiet. No vehicles at the entrance to Nablus. Few at the exit.Lively movement of pedestrians at the entrance to Nablus, being checked at two stations. Women passing without inspection, as are older men. Bags are being examined carefully.Coming out of Nablus, only few people.Four detainees in hut – all taxi drivers. 08:30 – two more detainees join in the hut. They tried to exit Nablus and are detained for inspection. Also a young girl who tried to enter Nablus with her mother. The soldiers report that she is wanted. She is taken for body search. Her mother waits on the side, weeping. The girl offers a hostile attitude and does not want to talk to us. She does not know, or does not want to talk Hebrew, and one of the taxi drivers serves as interpreter between her and the soldiers. 08:40 – scores of people arrive in a wave to enter Nablus. The phenomenon repeats itself from time to time. The soldiers immediately open an additional checking station, and all pass within a few minutes. Two more taxi drivers detained. One contends that he does not have an ID to give the soldiers, and in place of that they take from his house keys. This particular driver for some reason annoys the soldiers, and therefore he remains in the hut after all the remaining drivers have been released. 09:00 – a bus at the entrance to Nablus is being checked for a long time, and a line of five vehicles builds up. A phenomenon that will repeat later.Ten detainees, mostly taxi drivers who are trying to pass the time by telling jokes, which annoys the soldiers. The suspect girl is also still waiting.The line entering Nablus is stopped for a few minutes and grows to tens of people. The inspection is renewed and after a few minutes all are passing withing ten minutes. The check of pedestrians is fast.Examination of packages at the entry to Nablus is carried out on the very dusty ground. Only at the exit is there a table for checks of bags. 09:15 – a student wanting to enter Nablus is detained for inspection. Released after a few minutes. Two taxi drivers are released after a warning not to cross the forbidden lines. The soldiers try to stop a driver who approaches closer than permitted to their position. He tries to evade and two soldiers chase after him and arrest him. He is also among the detainees. Within a few minutes, yet another taxi driver is added to the detainees.Longer lines of vehicles are developing: four at the entrance, eight at the exit. Mostly trucks. A cement mixer truck passes and a man sprays the road with water, apparently to keep the dust down. 09:30 – two drivers are released. One of them had waited two hours in the hut. They seek to explain to their colleagues not to come close to the soldiers’ position. The girl is still waiting. A young man from Kotzin is also arrested. It appears that he attempted to bypass and was picked up by an army jeep. Later on we find that his ID has remained in the jeep, and he has to wait a long while to get it back.A soldier brings to the checking station a package of toy rifles that he found on a porter who was transporting packages from side to side on a donkey cart. He asks whether the package shouldn’t be confiscated. Finally he returns it to the porter. Meanwhile, his comrades have found some toy pistols, and are amusing themselves with them.All the time they examine the porter, they don’t check any vehicles and the line gets longer. 09:40 – all the drivers are released. All that remains are the Kotzin youngster and the girl. After a few minutes, the driver who particularly annoyed the soldiers is returned to the pen.The war with the taxi drivers goes on all the time, arousing wonderment, about whether it is not possible to find a serious solution to prevent problems for the soldiers and interferences at the checkpoint. 10:00 – the suspect girl is not allowed to enter Nablus. She returns with her mother in a westerly direction. Later we see that she tries her luck and asks bus drivers to take her, but the soldiers are aware of it and she is forced to give up. 10:15 – a long line of vehicles, 12 at the entrance and a similar number at the exit. Apparently it is because for a few minutes only one lane is functioning for both sides. 10:40 – we leave for Anabta. Still a long line of vehicles coming out of Nablus. 10:50 Anabta – the atmosphere is tranquil, but there are only three soldiers at the checkpoint and long lines because only one soldier is checking in each direction, and the vehicles are compelled to stand close together. The third soldier is helping check pedestrians and also supervising a suspect detainee.Nine vehicles waiting at the entrance to Tulkarm, 15 at the exit. The inspection is very slow and there is almost no movement of vehicles. A little after we arrive the pace is a bit faster and the traffic starts to flow. At the entrance to Tulkarm, the check is superficial. Outgoing it is more thorough.A Transit is detained on the side after all the IDs of its occupants have been inspected: a problem with one of the passengers. A detainee waits nearby. The soldiers say he is wanted. A soldier moves him into the hut after we exchange a few words with him, sits near him and guards him.After a while the soldier comes out to help his comrades and he moves the detainee to a place without shade. He also handcuffs him, but brings him water. The detainee complains about sitting in the sun. At first the soldier doesn’t answer, but then moves him into the shade.In the soldiers’ emplacement, bottles of drink are clearly visible. The soldiers also eat occasionally at the checking station, instead of in the nearby hut. The Palestinians’ fast doesn’t arouse any thought in them. 11:20 – the outgoing vehicle line is shorter, only six waiting. At the entry a line of ten vehicles.Few pedestrians pass quickly in both directions.The detained Transit is released, as is a taxi that was held for inspection.An additional sokldier joins the checking team.