Beit Iba

BEIT IBA, Thursday 30 December 2004 AMObservers: Hadassah T., Ruth V., Esti S. (reporting) colour = red>07:30 - We found only few people crossing the checkpoint, the turnstile side was empty and there were no detainees. But gradually more people arrived and then the number of detainees grew. [Detainees are, typically, men aged from 16 to 30 or 35 who have no passage permits; recently, young women, too, have been detained. There has also recently been a downward shift in the ages affected – now from 14 to 30 — but this can vary. 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.] A woman without any documents tried to go through, claiming that her mother had died; she said she had forgotten her papers at home. She was given a telephone to call someone to bring the papers, but her husband refused to bring her ID card , so she went back to Askar camp, returned some time later with the ID and went through. There were now two new detainees, taxi drivers being “educated” by two hours detention for parking "over the line" [i.e. too near to the checking stations and to their prospective passengers]. The soldiers refused to relent and said that once the punishment had been given, it became the responsibility of the checkpoint commander. We showed them a letter (dated 12.10.2003) from Lieutenant Col. Sharon Afek on the subject of punishment at the checkpoints: this letter makes it clear that that such punishment is prohibited. We tried to call Afek's office but without success.