Beit Iba, Jit, Wed 24.9.08, Morning

There was the calm, easygoing routine of the checkpoint. How demoralizing.

08:20 – Very few vehicles in both directions.  The longest line we saw had five vehicles.  There’s a policy of not giving permission to vehicles to enter or leave Nablus, the largest city in the northern West Bank, the size of Ramat Gan.

Nevertheless, we saw some cars entering that didn’t belong to international welfare organizations.  Has there been a shift in policy?  Edna says that they’re probably collaborators.

As part of the easing of restrictions for Ramadan, people entering on foot aren’t checked, and go through quickly – most of them students.  People leaving are checked as usual (removing belts, and sometimes shoes).  But few leave at this time of day.  So the soldiers have almost nothing to do.  The checkpoint is calm.

Bus passengers, both those entering and those leaving the city, are checked without having to get off.

A woman asks us for help – she’s originally an Israeli citizen (born in Umm el Fahm), who married a Palestinian from Nablus.  Usually such people retain their Israeli citizenship.  She says that she had to turn in her Israeli ID and obtain Palestinian citizenship as a condition for registering her children for school.  Now she wants very much to visit her relatives in Israel.  She also has a married daughter in Israel.  When her brother died, she couldn’t attend his funeral.  We spoke to Tomer, the DCO representative.  He referred her to the person in the DCO office who deals with such matters.  He said that she’ll get an entry permit valid for a few days, and she could also have dual citizenship, and apply to the Israeli Ministry of Interior for an ID card.  Is that true?

09:20 – We leave.

Jit junction – no checkpoints.

Shvut Ami – We saw two teen-aged girls and a horse in the “camp” located in a Palestinian orchard to the left of the road.