Beit Iba, Mon 3.3.08, Morning

07:10  Beit Iba

No restrictions according to the checkpoint commander,
who requested that we speak only with him.  No line most of the time at the
entrance.  Women are not inspected.  The IDs are checked against a list for
most of the men, even older men.  At the exit, the older men and the women go
through the humanitarian line.  The young men go through the magnometer, along
with taking off their belts and shoes.  Of course, the shoes that make the
magnometer go off aren't inspected at all.  Hard to understand.

Passengers in taxis at the exit are requested to get
out and pass the checkpoint on foot.  At the entrance they sometimes take the
ID of one of the passengers for inspection and return it after a few minutes.

Pouring rain cause an increasing stream of water at
the pedestrian checkpoint into Nablus.  People need to jump in order to stay
dry.  And this is after considerable long and careful planning of the
checkpoint.  With no other choice, the checkpoint commander decided to move the
pedestrians onto the road.

And, in the pouring rain, a peddler passes by with a
pile of jeans, and they even ask him to take his merchandise apart on the wet
sidewalk.  Everything was wet anyway, but what difference does that make?

A number of soldiers went off to move the taxi drivers
farther away and, while doing this, an argument apparently developed with one
of the pedestrians there.  The soldiers claimed that he pushed them and that
they pushed him back.  He was detained, and didn't have an ID.  We asked the
DCO to check, and he found out that, when his ID arrives he will be inspected
and, if everything is alright, he will be freed.