Qalandiya, Mon 2.2.09, Afternoon

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Place: 
Feb-2-2009
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Afternoon

 Netanya G., Phyllis W. (reporting)

14:45 Ar Ram  There were few vehicles at the checkpoint.  No pedestrians and no detaineesinfo-icon.

14:55 There was no line at Atarot and traffic flowed

15:00 When we arrived at Qalandiya, we counted a line of 8 buses that were waiting at the northern circle.  Within the checkpoint, there were a lot of people -- three full lines in the hut (in the northern one and also two in the two operating (2 & 4) there were about 200 people).  We called the hotline and the woman soldier who answered she would check on what was happening.  Just to be sure, we also called the commander of the passageways, Mahdi, but we were not surprised that he didn't answer and we left him a message.  We also sent a brief SMS to his recording machine.  Mahdi returned a message and saying that it was being dealt with, and even before we managed to thank him, another lane was opened and things started to move.

15:35 The lines were over -- both in the hut and also in the inner passageways.  We decided to visit the checkpoint at Atara and then to return to Qalandiya.  Even though the traffic was heavy, we crossed without delay. 

16:00 Already as we we walking up the hill, we saw that there were no lines in any direction.  At the checkpoint, a soldier approached us and politely asked that we stand off to the side so as not to disrupt the traffic.  He placed us exactly within the checkpoint and stayed to talk to us.  It's been a long time since we got such friendly treatment.  He told us about the experience of his unit in Gaza and how, as a medic, He treated wounded Palestinians. And of course, he told us about how the officers in his unit instructed the soldiers on how to relate politely to the Palestinians.  And in truth, we saw no problems at the checkpoint.  The soldiers did not bother and the traffic continued to flow.

1630 - 1700  We returned to the Qalandiya checkpoint.  As we approached the Leel checkpoint, we were stuck in a long slow lane of some 40 cars that slowly wound up the hill.  It took us a quarter of an hour to reach the checkpoint and there soldiers told us that there was stone throwing and Molotov cocktails further up.  We realized that we would not be able to get to Qalandiya and continued via Hizme to Jerusalem.