Beit Iba, Thu 31.1.08, Morning

07.50 - Beit Iba. There is a dog trainer with a dog. No cars are lined up. Four detainees in the detainee enclosure are waiting to be released. The CP commander N. says he “inherited” them from the earlier shift. He thinks they tried to pass not through the CP. The temperature is only 2 C. After 50 minutes Nina got fed up and asked the DCO rep. for help as well as called the army’s humanitarian line. The DCO rep did help and they were released.

Upon arriving at the CP the magnometers did not function and people crossed through the “humanitarian” exit and had their chattels checked on the floor. Each person had to empty all their contents on the floor and repack while crouching there. The stream of pedestrians grew fast and their agony was evident. About 09:00 the magnometers started operating and things eased up somewhat.

There is an inherent problem at this CP. Rainwater runs down the road from Nablus and gets funneled into the incomers  passage, the path is like a Wadi.. All passers have to wade through the water, while their trousers, shoes and socks get soaked. This needs immediate attention.

At 09:00 there was an odd occurrence . A guy, who had shortly before crossed the CP, came running back. He was given somebody else’s ID. He called that person and that person had a third person’s ID and was coming to the CP to collect his own.

The CP commander was called, searched and found the first persons ID in the CP cubicle and returned it to him. And now a CP game started to find who else was involved in this merry go round.

I must commend the DCO rep. R. who does good work and shows empathy for the local Palestinians