Beit Iba

Beit Iba, Sunday 8.04.07, pm Observers: Aliya S., Susan L. (reporting)Summary"Inventing Human Rights," a newly published history, was reviewed in today's International Herald Tribune. Evidently the book has a broad philosophical and historical base, the author's interest focusing on eighteenth century America or France rather than on twenty first century Israel or Palestine. But the profound sense of empathy for the autonomy and well-being of other human beings is not new, appearing already in the eighteenth century. Moreover, it was emotion then and emotion still today which lie at the source of concern for the victims of cruelty and brutality, and it is emotion which forms the core of our observations in the OPT.13:10 QalqiliyaIt's the eve of the last day of Passover and therefore a holiday. We've never seen the Qalqiliya "terminal" area so crowded, largely with settler cars, a never ending stream of traffic entering the OPT, and border guards on duty, waving on almost every car without checking. 13:30 Jit JunctionA throwback to former days: the concrete dividers are back in place at the junction (rather than nearer the entrance to the village of Jit). One of the stations, on the western side, is manned, just one small truck, from the Anabta/Beit Iba direction stopped at this hour. Who knows what's to come?14:00 Beit IbaAs we park the car at the Huwwash Brothers, a group of single file soldiers marches by, (no, they are walking nervously), guns pointed straight ahead. None of the many Palestinians in the area takes any notice.Flag waving time in the OPT. A clean white Israeli flag hangs from the military look out tower, plus what we take to be a unit flag (the same one is also at A-Ras). As it's summer time, the lights at the checkpoint now come on an hour earlier (and the sun shines brightly). Throughout our time at Beit Iba today, there are a great many soldiers, sometimes more soldiers than pedestrians! Hard to know what is going on. Change of shifts is one thing, but when there are three second lieutenants and a total of ten soldiers milling about at the central checking area, one wonders…. At one point one second lieutenant, having told us to stand "only there" (the "white line" has long since been washed out) gives a lecture to another second lieutenant about how to deal with MachsomWatch women as well as with Palestinians. Eventually, most soldiers disperse, and then are four at the central checking area….14:20 -- a single file of soldiers, guns pointing straight ahead, walk in copy cat fashion to the ones we saw on the Deir Sharaf side of the checkpoint, in the direction of Nablus. Lunch is served, the usual silver foil lunch packages, plus a package of matza atop. Half of an open package is given by one soldier, as he and his mates climb up the hill to the lookout tower, to the sitting beggar, who shakes the crumbs from his clothing, placing the matza into his basket -- already filled with more matza! N., the sergeant commander, already familiar to us, joshes with one of the porters, a fixture at the checkpoint, the latter telling us what a great guy N. is. A stray dog, now also a fixture here, is handed a piece of matza by N., rejected by the dog, who also refuses to enter the open door of the compound in which the soldiers stand. While the soldiers and porter banter and coax the unwilling dog, the line from Nablus trying to get through the checkpoint grows and grows.Checking of pedestrians: as is usual of late, with gun pointed directly into plastic bags, everyone thoroughly poked and prodded, each has to be opened, and people are carrying a lot of packages today. 14:35 -- the turnstiles don't turn. Some men go into the humanitarian line, gruffly told by one soldier to "go to the checkpoint." The soldier finds that there's an offending gate left open on the Nablus side, so people have tried to sneak into the humanitarian line. He closes it, continuing to gaze at the turnstiles that don't function properly and make it hard for people to get through. The wait is increased. A woman and small child wait for the toddler's father to pass through -- ten minutes.The checking of people from Deir Sharaf, a steady stream, also becomes more thorough, and the soldier now checks all IDs, young and old, men and women.14:45 -- two soldiers do a walkabout, holding -- obviously quite unwillingly -- two large plastic garbage bags. If they've been given an order to clean up the checkpoint, well and good. It's filthy. There's a lot to pick up. One finds a pair of glasses, hands it inside, they're given back and find their way into the garbage bag. The soldiers pick up a few pieces of rubbish in desultory fashion, but only around the checking station, which is hard to get to for people to hand the military police inside an ID as there's so much junk on the ground. 15:00 -- checking of vehicles: thorough but less than two minutes each. A taxi turns around at the checkpost having had a huge, heavy bag taken from it and put into another. Five soldiers involved in this transaction, six vehicles coming from Deir Sharaf. A "go slow" order seems to typify what's going on at Beit Iba, and yet we're still far from the lazy days of summer!