Beit Iba, Shavei Shomron, Anabta

BEIT IBA,SHAVEI SHOMRON, ANABTA Wednesday 24 November 2004 PM Observers: Elat B., Ria Y., Sara F., Tzion S., Deborah L. colour=red> SUMMARY: Beit IbaWe arrived at 14:00 and left at 15:30. The movement of people and vehicles was very smooth. The soldiers were polite most of the time and worked quickly. The officer in charge, N., was willing to answer our questions. A., from the District Coordinating Office (DCO) [the army section that handles civilian matters; it generally has representatives at the checkpoints ostensibly to alleviate the lot of the Palestinians], was there and helped with the line of women . With regard to those coming from the Nablus direction: there were three lines for women and children and two for men. At any one time there were as many as 100 people on line, but the lines kept moving. There were only very few people going into Nablus and they were checked as they lined up. There did not seem to be any [terrorist] alert: thus, during the time we were there, there was a total of five detainees and they were not kept long. [Detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 or 35 who have no passage permits; recently, young women, too, have been detained. The detainees' ID details are phoned through to the General Security Services (GSS, also known as the Shabak or the Shin Bet, the Hebrew acronym for the GSS) for checking against a central list of security suspects and the answers are then relayed back to the checkpoints. This cumbersome process can take considerable time, and that can be prolonged even more if the soldiers wait to accumulate a batch of ID cards before passing them on to the GSS , or if they behave in a similarly tardy manner at the end of the process, waiting until they have a batch of GSS clearances before they release individual detainees. Meanwhile, the detainees are virtually prisoners at the checkpoint where the soldiers retain the ID cards until the entire process is completed]. Students went through the checkpoint freely [on Wednesdays, registered students, with valid student cards, whose homes are outside Nablus may leave the town for the weekend, returning to the university there on Saturdays]. When we first got there, there were 11 vehicles waiting to be checked, but when an ambulance needed to go through, all of a sudden the line of cars was waved onward, and from that time on there was no line. Beit IbaThe area just in front of the checkpoint was filled with scores of taxis. We learned from one of the drivers that it has only been two weeks since the taxis have been allowed back here. When we first arrived, a taxi driver came up to us to tell us that 15 minutes earlier , the keys to his taxi and his ID card had been taken away because he had driven too close to the checkpoint. Fortunately, he got keys and card back just by going up to the soldier immediately after he talked to us. A man who described himself as the owner of the largest bus company in the area told us that he had just recently received permission to drive his buses through the checkpoint . His passengers have to get off so that they can be checked and then he can pick them up on the other side. But, he complained, what is the use of receiving such permission if, as so often happens , he and his bus have to wait so long on the line for vehicles that his passengers -- who have already passed through -- get tired of waiting for him and find other means of transport. He said this problem was especially acute on Saturdays when the vehicle line was long and the students who made up most of his passengers were anxious to get to class on time.A couple of taxi drivers told us we should check out Shavei Shomron because there was a long wait there. He said it had been okay for a few days, but now it was bad again .So we went there to see what we could do.Shavei Shomron:There were about 20 vehicles waiting in each direction. The two soldiers who were there let through only one side at a time. But , they did not check the cars. They had one vehicle at a time approach and then they would just let it pass through. Each direction got two to four minutes of time , and then the soldiers would change to the other side. When we asked the officer why they couldn't have both sides go through at once, we were told that they were trying to make things as easy as possible for the drivers and we should take notice that they were not being checked. However, if they let both directions go at the same time they might create a less guarded situation in which a driver then slip into the entrance to [the settlement of] Shavei Shomron, and they must prevent that from happening. While we were there the wait was short. AnabtaWe were stopped at the entrance by a jeep and told we could not go through. This shift also went to Jubara where there was a very long line of cars going into Tulkarm – a traffic jam, not a road block! We were not allowed up the road to Jubara. We were told there was army activity going on up there. From here we went to Irtah (Gate 700) where there was no line of traffic.