Beit Iba, Wed 11.2.09, Afternoon

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Place: 
Observers: 
Sara P., Tami C.,Guest:Miriam S.
Feb-11-2009
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Afternoon

Translator:  Charles K.

15:45  The road to the Shave Shomron checkpoint is narrow, and cars traveling in opposite directions find it hard to get by each other.  Traffic flows fairly quickly without inspections, though soldiers stood around additional coils of razor wire as if everything else was alright…  The soldiers say they close the checkpoint at midnight.  We went up there because we read in the recent reports that soldiers have been posted there again.  As far as remember, a month ago there weren’t any soldiers there.  Well, sometime decides when to close and when to open, when to station guards and when not to station them, and we’ll keep coming to see and, of course, to report.

16:10  Beit Iba
Two lanes for cars coming from Nablus, one with about 20 cars and the other with about 10.  Traffic leaving flows freely with only occasional inspections, people entering on foot aren’t inspected.

Three lanes for people leaving Nablus on foot, one for women and holders of appropriate permits.  It was pretty crowded most of the time, but moved fairly rapidly.  The young men on the other two lines undergo all the usual harassment, removing belts and everything that makes the metal detector beep, sometimes shoes, of course; it’s lucky that it’s dry, but the skies are clouding over and it starts to rain, but fortunately for those on line it’s still dry where they have to go through.  Salah, the DCO representative, is doing his job faithfully, helps the soldiers clear up misunderstandings and problems, and since there aren’t many people the wait gets shorter.  No detaineesinfo-icon, most of those going through were young people coming back from classes.  Occasionally they stopped to talk.