Beit Iba, Wed 2.1.08, Afternoon

Beit Iba
 
What is interesting is the story of the detainee.

15.45 A short line of cars. On the way we give Mashur with the cart a bundle of clothes from Raya.  At the checkpoint we met a volunteer from Switzerland who says he has heard a lot about us.  There is a representative of the DCO who says that there is a detainee who is suspected of being a terrorist.  Her name appeared on the list and she is waiting for the Secret service to take her away.  The shed is almost empty with few people. But they go through the turnstiles one by one  and the checking is very careful. On the table everything is opened and the people take off jackets and belts and afterwards go through the electronic gate but because there are not many people it is a steady stream.

16.00 A jeep arrives to take the detainee and a new one, a man, takes her place. The commander says he will have to be there for 3 hours but he will free him in 5 . Why?

And this is his story.

He lives in Sara and at 7 in the morning he was caught going  to Jit, (straight there and not through the checkpoint).  They told him to come to Beit Iba to take his ID. He went on his way to work and when he had finished he had come there but because he had not come immediately in the morning  he would have to wait until they freed him and that could take up to three hours.

He tells me that he earns 80 shekel a day when there is work. The way to work costs him 2 shekel and takes 5 minutes. When I ask him what he will do the following day he says of course he will go on foot as not every day there is work and he has to provide for his family.  And not every day they catch him.

I spoke to the commander who was friendly. He had the man's ID in his hand but said that because the man had gone to work and not come straight to the checkpoint he would have to wait. I said that we had a letter that the army was not allowed to detain people as punishment but only to check the person out. He said that he had received an order only to free him at 5.00. I asked him what he would have done had he been in the man's place. Would he have lost hours of work?  We also asked about the cost of the journey but got no answer.

16.30 We left in the hope that when we were no longer present the commander would free the man.

The picture of a man between 30-40  years being detained……educated, speaking Hebrew, decently dressed sitting there helplessly and waiting for a bureaucratic decision of a 19 year old does not leave me.