Beit Iba, Tue 17.2.09, Afternoon

Beit Iba

 14:45

At the entrance to the checkpoint there is light
vehicle traffic, at the checkpoint there is a humanitarian line and 2 regular
lines;  there are female soldiers at the inspection point.

In the regular lines, the line reaches the middle of
the checkpoint;  the humanitarian line is quite long.  A few minutes after our
arrival, they speeded up the inspection and the line shortened.

 At the entrance to the checkpoint we found a
conspicuous orange sign with the following inscription:  "Thanks to
Machsom Watch for your assistance in the success of our struggle.  The
Terrorist Organisations."

 We asked the DCO rep who put up the sign and why they
didn't remove it.  He said the "Blue and White Women" had hung it and
that only the checkpoint commander had the authority to take it down.

 We waited quite a long time for the checkpoint
commander, who claimed that he was busy.  When he arrived, he showed no sign of
being willing to remove the sign.  We called the DCO, a man answered who seemed
quite shocked by the situation and promised to take care of it. Indeed, after a
few minutes, the commander took the sign down and put it in the "booth". 
We wondered whether he intended to put it back up after we left.

 Aside from this, there were no unusual events.  By
16:00 the checkpoint was quite empty.