Beit Iba, Wed 18.2.09, Afternoon
Beit Iba
15.35 Tami receives a
call for help from Shelly (a previous member of MW): a man from
Salfit needs our help. A soldier holds his i.d. and he can’t
continue. He is standing at the checkpoint Zatra (Tapuah) with
his wife and two children. Throughout the rest of our watch Tami
handled this problem, with calls to the humanitarian Moked, etc.
The DCO informed us that they had checked and that the soldier told
them that he was holding no i.d. Afterwards the same soldier told
the Palestinian to wait two hours and only then would he get his i.d.
back. That is, he really did have the id. - and lied to his superiors
(No one rebuked him for this. Apparently it is not so rare an
occurrence). All this took two hours.
On our way back we spoke to
Zahran of the Nablus DCO, who referred us to his replacement, Ahmad.
When Ahmad started to deal with the matter, things began to move. But
then, although we were told that the Palestinian had been released,
it turned out – when we phoned him – that he was still standing
there. Only on our way home, at about 6 p.m., he told us that
he had arrived home. (Tami frequently receives calls for help
like these and deals with them from home.)
We enter the checkpoint area,
which is almost empty. In the shed are 5 people. A few people
pass in the humanitarian line, without delay.
The commander of the Beit Iba
checkpoint – Daniel – from Gedud Lavi, talks to us pleasantly, but
explains that is job is to protect us and all of central Israel.
Salah of the DCO greets us
warmly. He apparently is helping the new soldiers in their task.
Two traffic lanes exit Nablus.
Cars are checked thoroughly, but are not detained.
16.25 Cars entering the town are
not checked, not even huge trucks. The commander enters
to talk to the military policewoman who is doing the checking, apparently
to say good-bye because he is ending his watch - and all the checking
stops. The number of people in the shed rises to 20. When
the commander leaves, checking resumes and the line vanishes.
16.35 We leave and continue
to Anabta.