Beit Iba Checkpoint

 Waiting time at pedestrian checkpoint exiting Nablus – one hour! 

Waiting time for vehicles entering Nablus 35-60 minutes!

 Five vehicles were prevented from entering Nablus during our stay at the checkpoint (15:30 - 17:00) –we have the car license numbers.

Five pedestrians exiting Nablus were detained, two detainees were held since 12:00 noon as punishment. Upon change of shifts, the checkpoint commander took their IDs and went, and so they were held until 17:15 when he returned the IDs. A third detainee, named Bingo, was on the list of people wanted for interrogation. He had not been released by the time we left. Since we were unable to make contact with him, we do not know his fate. As for the other two, we also do not know why they were detained and when they were released.

We reported to the Center on all the detainees, and complained about the long detention. We spoke to a Nablus DCO officer and asked that a representative be sent to speed up the release of the detainees, but no one came. We complained about a sergeant’s attitude to transients during his checkpoint shift. 

A truck driver with a large trailer has been detained at the checkpoint since morning. According to him, he wanted to leave Nablus at 06:00. Despite having a permit, the soldiers would not let him out. He explained to them that, in order to turn back to Nablus, he needed a place wide enough to turn. He drove forward to the carpenter’s shop – the first place where he could turn. The soldiers assumed he was bolting, and confiscated his documents. The commander of the morning shift took the driver’s papers with him when the shift changed, and by 17:00 when we left, he was still waiting to get his documents back (we can only hope that they were returned with the IDs at 17:15). 

Chronology – 15:15 -17:10
We cannot observe whether there are detainees in the pen, or see and hear what is happening at the pedestrian checking station. Observation at the checkpoint is being reduced from week to week. The checkpoint commander barely answers our questions about the reason and duration of detentions. The metal detectors are presently targeted on the entire body, and chirp incessantly. What can a pedestrian transfer in his shoes that endangers the occupation regime? There is not, nor can there be, any security logic in this check at this place (in the heart of the Occupied Territories), other than to humiliate the transients even more! 

Twelve vehicles are in the line to enter Nablus. As time progresses the line gets longer, and when we leave at 17:10 there are already 32 vehicles! Since the checking time per vehicle on average is two minutes, the significance is a wait of an hour or more. Exiting Nablus, there are seven vehicles in line. At the vehicles’ checking stations  bar checkpoints are added. 

In the pedestrian exit from Nablus, there are 100 youngsters and 30 in the line for women and elderly. But as time passed, by 17:00 the line was much bigger, as more and more people (mostly students) arrived, and it at times exceeded 250 people. Those entering Nablus also undergo checks that include matching IDs to lists and inspection of packages. In the line for women and the elderly the checks are also meticulous, though without metal detectors. Checks for those exiting include emptying of pockets, loosening of belts, removal of shoes and of course spreading of the contents of bags on the inspection table. 

In the line of women and elderly, the check is not constant. When the line is long, the women are sometimes allowed to pass without a check, though all the men are inspected. The road out of the checkpoint is full of vehicles waiting in line to enter the city (the line is often up to the carpenter’s shop and the quarry). Taxis arrive and drop passengers, and others take on people and try to drive away, and between these thread men, youngsters, elderly, children with parents and anxious grandmothers. We also had difficulty in forging a way towards the checkpoint amid this crowd. The road is not sufficient for this volume of traffic, especially when a large part of the vehicles both in and out of Nablus are trailers carrying containers or buses. One of the soldiers standing by the line of women and the elderly is noticeable for his positive attitude and he indeed seems to take care that people should pass quickly. All the IDs that he takes to inspect are immediately returned to the owners, and he tries to see where his help is needed and he goes there. His pleasant attitude is especially noticeable against the background of hostile attitudes of the other soldiers. Three detainees (see above), to whom another two are added. We only learn about those held since 12:00 when they got permission to go and buy themselves something to eat, and then we could talk to them and take phone numbers. 

During an hour (15:42 - 16:42) 106 altogether were checked in the north line and 93 in the south line. Small wonder that the wait is an hour. A semi-trailer with a load of wood boards is denied entry to Nablus. 

15:40 –there are 11 vehicles at the entry to Nablus (including three from the direction of Qusin).There are at least 100 pedestrians in the line to exit Nablus. Since the study week in universities has been shifted to Thursdays, these are the hours that students return home for weekends in Tulkarm, Qalqiliya and all the villages and towns in the area. Students from Jenin also prefer to exit at Beit Iba. 

We timed two pedestrians, one waiting at the checkpoint from 15:28 to 16:25, and when he emerged we talked to him and some of his comrades, whose anger was difficult to quell. They are psychology, law and economics students. They live in rented apartments in Nablus, for which they pay 35-40 dinars a month. A number crowd into each apartment. They rent because it is difficult to travel every day through the checkpoints, even though the actual distance from Qalqiliya to Nablus is only 20 minutes. One student from Imtin (near Jit) claims that every morning from 07:00 there is a checkpoint of one jeep there.

A bus that left the checking line collected its young passengers (the women had stayed on the bus, and only the youngsters descended and stood in the pedestrian line). Since the youngsters emerged from the check at roughly the same time as the bus, it can be deduced that the bus also waited an hour. 

17:10 – we leave in the direction of ‘Anabta. In the pen there are five detainees! 32 vehicles are waiting to enter Nablus! The last of them will take at least an hour to pass.