Qalandiya, Mon 13.12.10, Afternoon
15:30, Qalandiya: At the tailend of this week-end's terrible storm, there were very few people at the CP. The airborne dirt and debris filled every corner forcing even the few peddlers to flee with their pushcarts. There were only two active passageways and even they were not full. We immediately saw two young men waiting to enter the DCO offices in Passageway 5. Because it was so late (the DCO closes at 4 PM), we began to phone anyone who might be able to open the passageway and help them get inside – headquarters, the DCO itself, the Passageway Unit. None of our calls helped at all. Only at 3:55 PMwere they allowed to enter only to be told that the DCO was closing and that they should return the following day.
Several minutes after the men entered, the DCO Representative (Achsan) appeared at the iron fence. Although we had tried earlier, we had been unable to contact him by phone. Achsan was very friendly and claimed that no one had called him. And then he gave us his cell-phone number: 050/623…. WOW!
Meanwhile, we noticed that the line in Passageway 4 (controlled by the same soldiers who also control Passageway 5) had not moved at all in the past half hour. There were 3 active healthy looking soldiers on duty in the "aquarium", but the fact that one of them was paying attention to the people in Passageway 5 (even though he didn't actually do anything until5 minutes before the DCO closed) apparently paralyzed the other two who stopped processing the people waiting to reach Jerusalem. At 4 PMthere were approximately 60 people waiting in the two internal passageways and the lines were moving terribly slowly if at all.
Out in the parking lot we suddenly saw that the Passageway "for VIP's" at the western end of Qalandiya CP was operating. We were told that it had opened the day before, on Sunday. This passageway now serves passengers of the various bus lines. At the entrance to the CP there was a line of about 7 buses. Driver after driver complained to us that the new arrangement did not actually improve conditions at the CP because the buses had to wait half an hour or longer in line before they could enter the CP and discharge their passengers who then stood in line to have their papers processed in the new passageway (which also works very slowly). One driver told us that he drives children to school in the mornings, covering a distance of 50 yardsfrom the CP to the school in an hour or more.
We left Qalandiya at 5 PMand returned to Jerusalemvia Lil/Jabba and Hizmeh CPs. There was a long line of vehicles at Lil/Jabba that was moving slowly but surely. At Hizmeh CP the traffic was flowing