Beit Iba, יום ג' 20.5.08, אחה"צ

16:50 Beit Iba– On the way to the checkpoint we received a report from Palestinians about the incident at Huwwara.  They said it was a 16 year old boy from a broken family who was carrying two cellphones on his belt.  One had a wire leading to a headphone in his ear.  When he was two yards from the detector he prepared to undo his belt and then the female soldier called out an alarm and he was shot immediately.

No one is being detained at the checkpoint; very few vehicles in each direction.  No students, since the university is closed.  Pedestrians are being checked as rigorously as usual, including using the dog to check vehicles.  The soldiers, reservists, are polite but thorough.  They tell us to stand next to the white line, which isn't visible at all.  Another innovation – they want us to tell them when we intend to go to the intersection where the vehicles are checked, and when we're there to remain where the gravel is.

After observing the vehicle checks, Amit got into an argument with the checkpoint commander.  The commander, who had reservations about us from the beginning, didn't like it when Amit said that when the dog-handler decides to examine a large truck she doesn't have it pull over to the side of the main road but checks it with the dog while it is standing in the vehicle gateway.  This results in the rest of the line having to wait for almost ten minutes.  The more Amit pressed the commander to agree that she was right, the louder the discussion got, until the commander announced that he plans to complain we're interfering with their work.

When the commander was asked later how they decide which passengers in vehicles entering Nablus have to get out and have their documents checked, and which are allowed to show their documents while remaining in the vehicle, the commander replied "between the ages of 5 and 70."