Beit Iba, Wed 1.10.08, Morning

Place:

Beit Iba

Observers:

Netti A., Edna K. (reporting) Translator: Charles K.

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Oct-1-2008

Morning

Beit Iba
There were more than ten soldiers at Beit Iba, spoiling for an argument with us.
There wasn’t any traffic, and they were bored.
The female soldier in the booth, the one whose job it is to open the turnstile for people leaving Nablus, fell asleep. From time to time, in the midst of the fierce argument over our right to control the Palestinians, we suggested to the commander that he wake her up, and also wake her up to open the turnstile even if there’s only one person waiting to go through.

Location Description

Beit Iba

See all reports for this place

A perimeter checkpoint west of the city of Nablus. Operated from 2001 to 2009 as one of the four permanent checkpoints info-icon closing on Nablus: Beit Furik and Awarta to the east and Hawara to the south. A pedestrian-only checkpoint, where MachsomWatch volunteers were present daily for several hours in the morning and afternoon to document the thousands of Palestinians waiting for hours in long queues with no shelter in the heat or rain, to leave the district city for anywhere else in the West Bank.
From March 2009, as part of the easing of the Palestinian movement in the West Bank, it was abolished, without a trace, and without any adverse change in the security situation.