Qalandiya, Thu 30.4.09, Afternoon

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Place: 
Observers: 
Orit Y,.Iland D.(reporting) Guest:Nivi B.
Apr-30-2009
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Afternoon
Seriously? Does this make us safer?

From 2:00  till 5:30 PM


Because of our guest we decided to show the new road for Palestiniansunderneath Road 443 and the fenced-in house in Giv'on. In Nebi Samuel welooked at the house of the settler and talked to the owner of the grocery store who is becoming increasingly bitter, since now since the wall has beencompleted underneath the hill he cannot even walk down to his wife and family in Bir Naballa, but has to travel via Beit Iksa and the new road - a long and expensive trip. He told us to report on an incident where a donkey had been arrested for being illegally near the Ramot CP. He said the soldiers had probably kidnapped the donkey, but it can only be eleased next Wednesday if three bags of food are delivered and a paper signed to the effect that the donkey will never cross again illegally into Israel.

The Givat Zeev CP has now become a full-fledged terminal. We were approached by a civilian guard who told us to move, but when we asked for his commander an older Druze  Border Policeman came to tell us that very soon this CP will also be albe to accommodate vehicles - the special facilities for checking cars have already been installed. There was a major traffic jam near the roundabout before Qalandiya pastAtarot. We had difficulty getting into the parking lot. Apparently after the closureinfo-icon (because of Independence Day) and it being a Thursday when students and workers go home for the weekend we were told that from the North there was a line of four kilometers probably blocking ongoing traffic out of Jerusalem. One driver told us that it had taken him more than an hour to get to the roundabout from Beit Hanina. We entered the terminal and on the way back talked to some people who were all bitter re the new regulations where people will be checked also on their way back from work into the territories. One woman said that because the line of the cars was so long,they had gotten out of the bus and walked three or four kilometers with their babyinfo-icon in order to get faster to the CP. They had received a permit tovisit Sakhnin for the first time in almost ten years and were eager to catch the last bus from the Central Bus station in West Jerusalem. The shoving and pushing were bad and the turnstile occasionally stopped for no apparent reason. We watched the cars trying to inch their way through the CP where they were not checked at all, but could not drive on because of the congestion on the northern side. The papers of each and every car entering from the direction of Ramalla were checked meticulously and all trunks had to be opened. The soldiers appeared unmoved by the four km. long line and moved us away to a spot from where it was difficult to observe properly.We managed to leave by driving in the opposite direction of the line of cars and wondered how much longer the drivers would have to wait in this endless queue.