Beit Iba, Mon 28.4.08, Morning

 08:15  J'it, open in every direction.

 08:20 Beit Iba. Not a lot of movement in any direction. The owner of the big quarry died yesterday and the quarry is closed.   We observe the vehicles checkpoint from the parking lot at the turnoff to Kuchin.  At the exit from the city there are no vehicles now.  At the entrance, we count 5.  The fifth one goes through in 7 minutes.

 08:55  As soon as we arrive at the pedestrian checkpoint, a soldier, without rank or communications equipment, approachs and orders us not to leave the plaza.  We politely object.  He claims that we are bothering him and that he will call the police.  We tell him to go ahead and do that.  He threatens to close the checkpoint and, when we tell him that this is forbidden, he answers:  "You are telling me how to run my checkpoint?!?"  We say that that is correct and I conspicuously take out my telephone…The soldier who claims that he is the checkpoint commander doesn't close the checkpoint, but calls his commander, a lieutenant in the reserves, who knows that we are allowed to stand there, who knows that it is forbidden to close the checkpoint, who knows that it is permitted to photograph and makes all this clear to the soldier who complies with obvious reluctance. In the detention shed there are two drivers.  One of them is a "special" taxi driver whom we know.   The drivers of the "specials" always park outside the regular line of taxis in a sort of bend in the road leading to the checkpoint.  They don't obstruct the traffic and are not noisy like the drivers on the other side of the checkpoint.  As soon as we arrived at the checkpoint, they complained that yesterday they were not allowed to stand there and they were even threatened.  It turned out that today an officer came and took the documents and keys of the driver we know and sent him to the detention shed for 4 hours.  We talked with the officer who was the checkpoint commander, who knew about the problem, but claimed that he could not change the orders of the officer.  Another "special" driver came especially to speak with the DCO about the same problem.  Tarek from the DCO said there was nothing to do about it.  But the commander, on his own intiative, freed the detained taxi driver in any case.  We couldn't help any more than this.  The second driver was also released. We stayed a little longer in order to make our presence known.  In general, the checkpoint operated smoothly under this commander's influence;  quietly and as efficiently as possible. 

09:50 We leave for ’Anabta.