Nablus

In a further escalation of Israel's
campaign to bar any potential foreign eyewitnesses from entering
Palestinian areas, the Israeli government is now attempting to
prevent entry into "areas A" to any foreign individuals,
not just those "suspected" as non-violent peace or human
rights activists and pacifist observers. A woman pulling a small
wheeled suitcase arrived at the Huwwara checkpoint heading towards
Nablus. The checkpoint was "open", most people were let
through, lines and waiting times were at the "checkpoint's
best", soldiers more or less "polite". The woman
used the lane reserved for VIPs, people holding special ID's,
Ambulances, UN cars, etc... She handed her West European passport
to one of the soldiers and told him she was on the way to Nablus to
do some research. (Later it turned out she was an academic from a
major European university.) The soldier informed her that she was
forbidden from entering Nablus. A minute later he said he could
actually let her in, but she must understand that on her way out of
Nablus she would be arrested right away. The woman tried to inquire
as to the basis for that ban, but to no avail. On further attempts,
she was told that she was now forbidden entry altogether, until
"a police car" would come and she would talk with
"an officer". In the meantime, a whole lot of military
officers, perhaps Border Patrol, i.e. police, as well, congregated
at the checkpoint booth, seeming to be holding a conference. Then
they left. The woman was determined on another entry attempt. This
time she insisted the army decide between a go-ahead, or a formal
prohibition with exact instructions as to the steps needed to
ensure her entry to Nablus. A soldier, a private, at the first
checkpoint barrier waved her through and told her to "go look
for an officer". She went to the second checkpoint barrier,
the booth, looking for an officer. There was none there, but
another private waved her through again, uttering the same
instructions. The woman followed the instructions all right - she
went looking for an officer on the road heading north, she reached
the northern Huwwara-Nablus checkpoint where usually only people
coming from the north are checked, she passed the checkpoint, got
into a taxi-cab and soon reached her destination. . . . Obviously,
the prohibition orders, whether written or not, had come down from
the highest echelons to the lowest field levels performing their
casual, routine "duties". These banning orders are to be
performed now on a casual, routine basis. While this incident
turned into a non-event -- it, together with the other incidents of
deportations, arrests and intimidations of foreigners, coupled with
the PM office launch of a new version of the old 'war of
victimhood' (in a foreign-press conference this week, showing
horror pictures of scattered body parts, results of a
suicide-bomb), do indicate a broadening of the Israeli government
crusade to close Palestinian areas to all but those foreigners it
deems non-potential-witnesses. Yet, on the other hand, it seems
they haven't (yet ?) found the way to carry out this policy except
by force and intimidation.