Azzun, Beit Iba, Jit, Mon 26.11.07, Afternoon

15.00 On our way to Beit Iba
On road 60, there was a car which was laying spiked barriers. Palestinian cars passed freely. We thought that this was to stop the settlers on their way to Chomesh.  We took the recommendation of Naomi from the previous week  and went up to the sentry box on the "old" road to Shave Shomron. At the side stood an ambulance and about 20 settlers and also two cars stood in front of the closed checkpoint. Today there was a ceremony in memory of Ido Zoldan who was murdered a week ago.

15.15
 We stopped in the parking lot of the carpentry shop where there was an ambulance and people gathered around. They were on their way to Tulkarm but students had been detained who had tried to slip through. They had already been there for more than an hour.  We got closer to the checkpoint and saw 13 detainees. There were many people at the two turnstiles and those who manage to get through pass us cursing.

One of the soldiers who was checking cars passing through from Nablus saw us. He came up to Elishave and asked," Nu did you see what happened yesterday. A terrorist with a detonator was caught. What do you say about that?" But he was not interested in getting a reply. To him the reply was obvious. To make things more difficult and to show them what we can do. He asked the driver of a car for his ID, with intentional and provocative slowness he opens and checks it and returns it to the driver in a sort of a dance which is obviously meant for us.

15.30
The DCO representative, Sergeant  T. explains to us that the detainees had tried to slip through and their IDs had been taken for checking. He promised that that they would be freed once their IDs had been examined.  In the meantime there are now18 detainees and Elisheva phones the centre.
At 15.50 they are all freed.

16.00
 The commander asks us to move off but we stand in place and explain that we are in a place which allows us to see what is happening. He says that we are bothering them and had we had not heard what had happened the previous day.  The whole time the soldiers throw this at us. The pressure on the turnstiles increases and the commander leaves us and tried to deal with the problem.

Those entering are not checked and they try to make their way through. Some jump over the cement  blocks.

A man with a small boy tries to pass at the side but the soldier calls him and sends him to the end of the line. The DCO representative intervenes and ask the soldier to check his ID. The Palestinian says that he is on his way back from hospital  where his wife is and that he had forgotten his ID. He only has copies. The soldier says he cannot let him pass and in the end the man goes back to the hospital to bring his ID.

Palestinians tell us that they cannot go home to Sebastia, Nisaf Jubaal and Iginisiniyat because the road is blocked. The centre did not know of this and did not know till what time this would be so. (Because of the ceremony at Chomesh).

16.30 Jit.
 A police checkpoint on the road west.

Azzun…no soldiers.

Al Funduq. All the shops are closed. Police jeeps and cars of the border police and another army vehicle along the road and this we also see at the crossroads of Ariel.