Qalandiya, יום א' 8.6.08, אחה"צ

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Place: 
Observers: 
Ronnie H. Tamar O. Fanial P. and 5 more guests from German
Jun-8-2008
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Afternoon
Seriously? Does this make us safer?


Natanya translating.
 
The evening of Shavuor, the 41st  day of mourning of the occupation from all aspects.
This is more or less a continuation of the report of Daniella Yoel from the  afternoon,4.6.2008
 
The area of the checkpoint at Qalandiya has become a mikve of dirty water. Anyone looking from the top can not see what is happening in the depths because of the dirty water, in this place where people are trying to carry on living and trying to survive with all their strength.
One has to be a good fisherman or someone who can give a penetrating look so as to see things as they are. Because the isolated and abandoned which are present at this place, as if nothing has happened here, as if life has stopped. Maybe it is possible to sing the requiem of Alandiya.
 
We asked the man whose coffee kiosk had been confiscated on Wednesday to give us a copy of the paper which had had been given as a "receipt" for his property. We did not have to make an appointment with him because the man came out of his house which was in the refugee camps that morning, went on his usual route which took him to the entrance to the checkpoint. Sat on his usual chair in his usual manner with his back to the wall, in the very same place, sits on the same chair and his face is to the vacuum where until 4 days ago his wagon had stood with the coffee goods which he needed to make a living. Maybe by a miracle his kiosk will come back, his way of making a living, maybe his honour will be returned to him, the honour which was taken from him by the municipal workers with the help of the army. His neighbour on a chair, a taxi driver, explains that "This is not the law. That before when kiosks were destroyed  at the old checkpoint that had been in their area, in that of the Israelis, but on this side this is their side is it not.
And I say this about this law where a man tries to sort out the justice and injustice in his miserable life, about this law in the name of which it is possible to take a way of making a living with rifles. What law is left to the poor and the weak.
A busy market has developed in the last days along the road, east of Qalandiya.  But now nothing is left but remains of the junk and broken plastic which had been thrown in the canal at the side of the road, after the "army" as the Palestinians said or 'our children" as some of us call them dealt with them at Wednesday last so as to put an end to their means of making a living for many families. And by what law did the army descend on the market for the couple of hundred metres  which is between the parking lot east of the checkpoint  in an operation which can be described as the burning of the chametz at Peisach.  They did not bother to find out whether these businesses were legal or not. Because all businesses which give a livelihood to the Palestinians is not kosher in the eyes of the lords.  Because here, in the world of another time (maybe yellow?) here the law does not speak but only the rifle.
They also took the clearing (water)  and the lighting which was in the shop of our friend, I, the father of I who is a big man and bearded . The invaders did not have a receipt and he fought a rearguard action. He has put in its place a cart on which are a few boxes of fruit on which the blazing sun descends and causes them to rot before their time and next to it some of his children sit. ( A picture of before and after will be sent).
The Palestinians as we have learned always miss the wicked yesterday because today is worse than yesterday and they know it will be even worse. 
At the car lane an ambulance waits in which a patient from the hospital in Ramallah has been sent to Mukassad to the hematology department. He needs to have a change of blood and in Ramallah there is no equipment for this. For 40 minutes we waited for the ambulance of the red Cross. Tal, the commander, refused to allow the ambulance to wait in the parking lot so as to save the man some few minutes of suffering. "Because it would cause confusion."  So he said and added that the driver of the ambulance could flee. Sic.
When the team from east Jerusalem arrived it seemed that they had only got the summons 15 minutes previously. When we tried of query this difference of time the medical teams of both towns said that the cause of this waste of time in the "back to back" was the fault of the DCO. They also said that the girl from Ramallah who had been bitten the previous night by a snake and had been brought to Ein Karem at the dead of night ( a story which was reported by the Voice of Israel and the amount of time which had taken to make the necessary connections and to get the documentation had nearly brought the child to the point of death.
The commander of the Rafat checkpoint was happy to see the "Jewess" who had arrived so surprisingly opposite him and with a gesture of ownership invited me to visit him for a few minutes so as to alleviate his boredom. He was surprised that we did not overtake the Palestinian cars and to our question was to why there were more than 20 cars in line all the time even though there was no segregation and the checking was not serious. He said,"The soldiers speak to the Palestinians so that they should know that there is a checkpoint.