Beit Iba, Shave Shomron, Tue 11.11.08, Afternoon

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Observers: 
Maki S. and Nur B (reporting) Translator: Charles K. Guests: Guy G., Adi Z.
Nov-11-2008
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Afternoon

 

Posters have been put up at all the main junctions reading, in glistening letters, “Jewish soldiers are good for the Jews,” as well as an attempt to draw a parallel between the riots in Acre and the pogrom carried out by settlers from Yitzhar in the neighboring village, Asira al Qibliya: “Arab police are good for Arabs, like in Acre; Jewish police are good for Jews, like at Yitzhar.”  We attach photographs we took at the Jit junction.

 

Traffic is light today at all the checkpoints because of the strike at the university in Nablus.  The students stayed home.  People say the strike is because of the budget.

 

14:10  Shavei Shomron

Vehicles go through when the soldier waves his hand, in both directions.

 14:20  Beit Iba

Traffic is light, mostly people travel on foot. There is one lane for men, one, the kind known as “humanitarian,” that is, for women and elderly men and one lane for people entering the city, although throughout our entire shift it wasn’t manned.  A., the checkpoint commander, says that inspections are random.  Men remove watches and belts before going through the metal detector, hand over their ID cards and bags through a small window to be checked by the soldier seated in the fortified position.  There are familiar checkpoint sights – old people having difficulty walking, mothers carrying babies wrapped in a blanket.

 14:30  A young man was found to be carrying army boots in his bag.  The MP: “Where did you steal them?”  The boots were confiscated. 

Light vehicular traffic, but there are always vehicles waiting in the two lanes leaving Nablus.  Authorizations and ID cards are checked.  It takes 1-2 minutes to inspect a car carrying up to five passengers.  A bus takes longer.  ID cards, collected ahead of time, are given to the soldiers in the booth.  A female soldier gets on the bus, remains there for about one minute.  The bus drives on.

 

Authorizations and ID cards are checked at the entrance to the city.  At 14:40 a vehicle is turned back.  A resident of the neighboring village, Biddya, doesn’t have a authorization, so he makes a U-turn.  He doesn’t enter the city.  He responds with a smile, “I knew they wouldn’t let me, but I tried.  I live nearby – why not?”