Beit Iba, Jit, Wed 28.5.08, Morning

8:15  Beit Iba
The air is filled with the dust of the quarry and the unceasing, deafening noise of its machinery and the beeping of the magnemometers.  Three lanes for checking those exiting.  At the present time those entering are also being checked, by a single soldier.
The check of people exiting includes removing belts and shoes.
About 20 people waiting to enter Nablus.  Men and women are waiting together on the line.  H., the DCO representative, replies to our question about the mixed-gender line, "That's what the checkpoint commander wants."  But, the soldier who's checking asks H. whether he can let the women through first to relieve the pressure.  And then H. tells him that he can let them through without checking them.

In general, the DCO representative seems pretty apathetic and mistrustful of those going through, and it seems that his job involves little more than being there.  For example, when his attention was called to the lists of ID numbers which are written in small, crowded digits, so that finding a particular ID number takes more time and delays the line, his answer was, "That's how it is."

At 8:50 a second soldier joins the one checking those entering.

9:10  A physician from the Nablus Eye Treatment Center, accompanied by his uncle, an American citizen, arrives at the checkpoint in a car registered as belonging to the treatment center.  He isn't permitted to enter Nablus as a driver of the car.  He can only do so if he has a single permit which lists both him and the car.  H. from the DCO says there's nothing he can do.  We tried to contact the IDF Humanitarian Centre; R. says that she'll try and find out.  The physician and his uncle prefer not to waste time and enter on foot so they can take a taxi.
(I don't know whether or not לאתר [מה הכוונה?] : Roni from the IDF Humanitarian Centre gets back to us and says that the man doesn't have a permit to enter Nablus.)

9:20 – We left.

There's no one manning the checkpoints at the Jit intersection.