Deir Sharaf, Thu 5.11.09, Morning

8:40  They built a checkpoint for the soldiers right next to the road, and two flags are flying – the Israeli flag and what’s probably the flag of the unit.  Until 8:43 cars went through quickly. 

Now two cars coming from Nablus have been pulled over – prey for inspection.  As a result, everything comes to a halt because they’ve stopped a third taxi in the middle of the road.  The two first cars being inspected are released in a couple of minutes and the line disappears.  The third is being carefully inspected and more cars are pulled off the road and again no one is going through.  The cars are released pretty quickly; it looks like they’re only inspecting a sample, but there are always cars being checked on the side.  The checkpoint commander approached us; he wanted us to move back.  We explained that it’s not a closed area, we’re not interfering with the traffic and we’ll continue to stand here.  A discussion then ensued, at the end of which we agreed to disagree. 

8:55  A truck is stopped in the middle of the road, but there’s room to get by.  The doors and the back open.  Inspection takes 3 minutes, and then another car is stopped but is quickly released.  There are cars being checked all the time.  In other words, there’s a checkpoint which is operating as a checkpoint, even if traffic isn’t delayed for long.  For some reason the soldiers have no problem stopping cars in the middle of the road instead of having them move over to the side, and not interfere with traffic.  The feeling that you never know when you’ll have to stop, and how you’ll be inspected, is certainly present, annoying and frustrating. 

It’s now taking more than five minute to inspect a pickup truck.  In the driver’s compartment were two women and three little children. 

We left at 9:10.