Beit Iba, Shavei Shomron

BEIT IBA, SHAVEI SHOMRON, Monday 29 November 2004 PMObservers: Riva B., Maya K. (reporting)Guest: Nili colour=red> SummaryA humane and relaxed checkpoint; there were no special incidents; worthy of note was that there were fewer than usual Palestinians going through. Shavei Shomron — 13:20 There were three reservists on duty and traffic on both sides was moving well. There were no queues and the car park was empty, save for a giant bulldozer. Beit Iba — 13:30 In the area in font of the checkpoint, dozens of taxis waited for passengers.At the checkpoint itself there were only very few people going through—and we couldn't discover why this was so. We were told that some "limited encirclement" had been imposed on the area [by the Israel army], and then there came the immediate rider:" Don't ask me what that means". The checkpoint was still staffed by reservists , pleasant soldiers who spoke politely and smiled at the Palestinians. In the hour and a half that we were there , there was a total of four detainees and they were all released within half an hour. [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 who lived far away — beyond a certain radius from Nablus – were not allowed through the checkpoint . The checkpoint commander was at pains to point out that yesterday had been a difficult day because there had been a high alert [warning of an impending terror attack] on and our watch would surely have had some criticism to make of the checkpoint. 15:00 — We left. There were no road blocks on our way here or back home again.