Beit Iba, Tue 5.2.08, Morning

Beit Iba. The entrance line to Nablus moves fast, no checking, it consists mostly of students. The people coming out pass through 2 checking points with turnstiles and magnometers, and there is a third line, "humanitarian", for the elderly and mothers with babies. These pass through the exit path.

Many soldiers and officers man the checkpoint, and unlike Anabta (separate report) it is run quietly and efficiently. This is not to say that the magnometers don't beep shrilly, that people don't have to remove their belts and sometimes their shoes then and there, on the cold and dusty concrete. The men come out putting on their belts often wearing angry expressions. With all the improvements of this newly reconstructed checkpoint, nobody thought it necessary to improve the conditions of the Palestinians, not just the soldiers. Whoever compares this to airports doesn't know or doesn't want to know what he's talking about. There it is an inconvenience, here it is humiliation.

A truck on the vehicle line starts moving before the barrier is lifted. "a new one, a new one and already broken!" says the officer sadly.__._,_.___