Deir Sharaf, Sun 12.7.09, Afternoon

Summary
What is the reality behind the pleasant calm and stillness of the OPT minus many of the infamous checkpoints and roadblocks which made day-to-day life -- through violation of the freedom of movement -- so burdensome and time-consuming for Palestinians? There's a continuing grip over life in the OPT, a separation barrier which engenders not only a dividing up but a deluge of daily degradation of ordinary people seeking to go about their everyday lives and a reality from which we, as MachsomWatchers, checkpoint monitors and observers, cannot turn our eyes. The dignity and human rights of another people, our neighbors, is at stake and the pleasant quietitude, as often impressed on us by the Israeli media is, in the long run, ruinous to the future image and character of this country.

15:50 Deir Sharaf
We have been told that entry to Nablus is open to Israelis today, and that we should try to go through the checkpoint with the car. We do so! The commander, a corporal, tells that it's true that usually it's only Saturdays, and that although coming out of Nablus is fine, going in is another problem…"You can come out, but you can't go in" Yet, today, "I'll let you, but I need to see your IDs." He is puzzled by the Hebrew nomenclature (Mamlacha Meuchedet) for the UK! "What on earth country is that?" he asks. 
Traffic flows freely in the direction of Nablus, and it's quite heavy.
 
Nablus itself, we learn, is more or less left alone by the IDF, other than incursions once or twice a month (different from nightly incursions of just a short while ago). The Palestinian Police are effective, but the economy is very weak.
 
Deir Sharaf now boasts a Nablus bakery which has the most delectable "knafeh," the dessert for which Nablus is famous. We sample it and make out way to the defunct Beit Iba. It's hard to believe today what once went on there. The kiosks are shuttered, there are no taxis awaiting pedestrians, and an endless stream of traffic flows into and out of the city. We venture a few more kilometers to the village of Beit Iba itself, furniture showrooms and workshops on both sides of the road.
 
16:55 Shavei Shomron
Just to remind us of a real checkpoint, we drive up Route 60 to the checkpoint at the back end of Shavei Shomron. Soldiers tell us we can't be there, and when we ask how come Israeli Jews were there less than a week ago (on the way to bury books in Homesh) the soldier replies, "I wasn't there then" (as if laws are dependent only on an individual's say so!)  An Israeli pickup truck with a sick Palestinian in it is stopped at the checkpoint, can't proceed. We don't' see the end of this as we have been told, in no uncertain terms, to leave immediately.  
 
17:05 Deir Sharaf
On our return to the checkpoint at Deir Sharaf, there is a long, long line of vehicles, waiting to be checked. Within ten minutes we're in front of a soldier who asks us what we're about. We tell him that his commander told us we could cross the checkpoint. He points to two imagininary stripes on his shoulder to make sure that this was the person we meant. We ask why every vehicle is being checked. "We're looking for somebody." The work on the new road to Shavei Shomron appears to have stopped completely.