Beit Iba, Mon 17.11.08, Morning

8:00  Shvut Ami B.
A new settlement begins to sprout, and nothing prevents it.  Again a small tent encampment, a seesaw for the children to enjoy, a building up the hill.  “And we’ve just begun…”

8:20  Jit junction is open.

8:40  Beit Iba
Very little traffic, either entering or leaving.  Cars go through almost without being checked.  People entering on foot aren’t checked, the usual beeping inspection on the way out. 

9:15  A man leaving Nablus can’t find his ID card.  He enters without being checked, so he doesn’t need it, but now the soldiers send him back to Nablus because he can’t leave without an ID card!  He tries to explain that he must have forgotten or lost it in the taxi that brought him and asks to go over to the taxi stand to look for it.  His requests fall on deaf ears until Tomer, the DCO representative, comes over with a brilliant idea:
The man will leave another document as security, go and come back…And in fact he returns with Sultan, the taxi dispatcher who testifies that a lost ID card was found and handed over for safekeeping to the soldiers – so where is it now?  In the soldiers’ booth!  The ID was returned to its happy owner and for a moment all share in the joy that the problem was solved.

9:30  A taxi driver we’ve known for years approaches us.  He’s trying to obtain a permit to work in Israel, and even though he received a magnetic card he’s been told that the GSS objects to him getting a permit.  I consulted Sylvia about how he could be helped.