Beit Iba, Thu 22.5.08, Morning

 Beit Iba
08.45.  The dog trainer sends a dog to climb on to a pile of jeans that are on a donkey driven cart.  He walks across the jeans until the cart is freed and after that, the dog climbs on to a cart laden with plastic bags that are torn and then the cart is allowed to pass. Lucky the cart with pitot is allowed to pass without the dog wandering over it as they are not covered. When we get to the checkpoint a captain runs to us saying that we cannot stand there. We insist that we can and suggest he calls the police. After some time we understood that we could stand outside the cement wall and to get even nearer and so we did. Few people pass and there are no lines. At the entrance to the town, there is now a red line that may not be passed until people are called by the soldiers and this includes women and children who sometimes have to wait and are not allowed to enter freely.
 A man who stops to gather his belongings which have been taken out of their packages after leaving the town is barked at by a soldier who tells him to get away and not to stop there. The same soldier shouts to two detainees (we could not find out what had happened to them) to sit down and that it is forbidden for them to stand. 

A man comes at a run and the soldiers who seem to be frightened shout to him to stop and not to move. From afar he explains that he forgot his ID at the post when he went through a few minutes previously. The soldiers look and find it and give it to him. After that, a man arrived who had just passed and his ID is also returned to him. It seems that the soldiers checking do not bother to return the IDs and that they just want the people to go through. 
 

09:30 The women in blue and white arrive and envelope the checkpoint with their sweetness and wander in and out as they please. Somehow their presence does not "bother the work of the checkpoint"  as we were told by the sergeant when we arrived. .. .