Beit Iba, Tue 30.12.08, Morning

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Place: 
Observers: 
Moriah P., Tom K. (reporting) Translator: Charles K.
Dec-30-2008
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Morning

7:20  Qalqilya – Traffic
flowing in both directions, 5 vehicles at the entrance.
 

7:45  Beit Iba – no
people here, nor cars going to Nablus.  No detaineesinfo-icon.  A few
cars leave Nablus after a brief inspection.  Our driver says there’s
not much traffic today because it’s exam period at the university,
and there aren’t any classes.  When we arrived I thought they
began taking our pictures, but the soldiers were photographing each
other, “making a book” – soldiers posing for the camerainfo-icon
Moriah suspects they tried to conceal the fact that they took pictures
of us. 

7:55  A number of youths
arrive at the checkpoint from Nablus.  The metal detector beeps. 
Again.  And again.  One of them takes off his coat, shirt,
belt.  His companions watch the show through the bars of the turnstile. 
They all enter without being checked. 

The taxi drivers who were punished
last week (detained for three hours because they “disrupted the orderly
functioning of the checkpoint,” and had to be taught a lesson) no
longer park on the Nablus side.  Apparently they learned their
lesson.
 

Maybe because it’s a sunny
day, almost all the Palestinians leaving Nablus have to remove their
shoes when they go through the metal detector.  But despite the
morning sun, it’s very c-c-o-l- d, and they have to jump and skip
around on tiptoe so as not to dirty their socks on the dusty concrete.