Beit Iba, Tue 15.7.08, Afternoon

Beit Iba cp

16:40  4 detainees.  According to the commander, two have been waiting 20 minutes and two others 50 minutes.  He says that he intends to keep them for two hours.  They bypassed the checkpoint when it was crowded.

At the moment there is almost no one waiting to go through.

One of the detainees calls to us.  Amit approaches him (with the commander's permission); he tells her that he works in a quarry (which is evident from the work clothes he was wearing), and they arrested him at his workplace, claiming that bypassed the checkpoint by going through the quarry.  The commander says he's lying!  Whom to believe?

The paradox is that at the entrance to Nablus 20-30 people are waiting for their documents to be checked against the short list. That's the IDF's logic – a short distance away people can enter Nablus through Huwwara without being checked at all.

17:15  The commander orders the release of two detainees.  The soldier who carries out the order is a hothead, gets into an argument with one of them, who insults him and is immediately detained again.  The second goes to the end of the line.

The same soldier also got into an argument with us earlier.  The commander, who tries to maintain a calm atmosphere, moved him to another location at the checkpoint.  Far from us, and far from the detainees' pen.

17:30  We left.