Qalandiya, Wed 5.10.11, Morning

Translator:  Charles K.

We arrived before 5:30; the line stretched to the checkpoint’s parking lot.  People looked very tired.
A few minutes after we arrived it began to be congested and people crowded around the entrance to the inspection area.  As always, we telephoned the DCO and the humanitarian office to complain that only three corridors were open at the time crowding was greatest.
The DCO officer arrived at 6 and let through all the people waiting at the humanitarian gate.  Two more corridors opened.  A Kafkaesque scene developed before our eyes as a man with heart disease, unable to push into the line at the revolving gate, on his way to Hadassah for a periodic checkup, also asked to go through the humanitarian gate.  He had great difficulty explaining that he’s employed, he’s receiving excellent treatment for his heart disease by the professor at Hadassah, which allows him to live a regular life and to work.  For a moment it seemed his work permit would be cancelled because a work permit and heart disease don’t go together.  They don’t care that the patient has also a one-time entry permit to Israel for the hospital appointment!
Finally the world returned to normal, and that a man was both employed and had a doctor’s appointment no longer seemed contradictory.
We took with us the Kafakaesque impression this little incident made on us when we left.