Beit Iba, Anabta, Jit

BEIT IBA, ANABTA, JIT, Monday, 20 December 2004 AMObservers: Rahel A., Herzlia E., Roni S., Edna M., Susan L.(reporting)Guests: Zalman A., Jill S., Roni F., Naomi L. colour = red>(We did not all visit the same checkpoints, but we kept in touchwith each other.) Summary : A very quiet, uneventful watch.09:00 Beit IbaIt was a beautiful , sunny day, with patches of green appearing on the ground in the wake of the recent rains. There were two unannounced roadblocks on the way to Beit Iba. Once there, we found there was no one at all in the detentioncompound, hardly any people on line waiting to go through , while outside the checkpoint the food and drink vendors were doing a brisker trade than ever.An An-Najah University faculty member told us that for the upcoming elections in the Palestinian Authority (PA) to bemeaningful, the Palestinianpublic, most of whom were agricultural workers, must first betaught to understand the significance ofelections, of voting, and of what it meant for their future . An-Najah, he said, with around 19,000 staff and students, was the largest university in the PA, and could wield some influence, but it was only one institution in a populous country. At the vehicular crossing, a truck loaded with brand new sofas triedvainly to get into Nablus; but the driver, who insisted he had apermit, in fact had only a permit for himself, but not for the van(which was not on the checkpoint list of vehicles to be allowed passage. ). He was forced to go back whence he had come. AnabtaThere were many taxis on both sides of the barrier at this unmanned checkpoint . There were no soldiers in evidence and no obviousproblems.09:45 JitOn the way to the [Israeli settlement of ] Qedumim, which continues to grow apace, we came across another unannounced roadblock at the Jit junction. The soldiers had stopped buses, trucks and taxis. A large group of at least 30 young men stood in the road, while one soldier talked into aphone to check their ID card details with the General Security Services, and another munched on snacks that he pulled out from a huge plastic bag. When we left, we gave our phone number to one young man telling him to call us if they were not released soon. Since we heard no more from them, we could only hope that all was well with them. 10:15 — Back to the "other planet" via Qalqiliya and a string of moreand more settlements, boasting more and more sophisticatedinfrastructure near the separation fence between the PA and Israel.