Qalandiya, Mon 28.11.11, Afternoon

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Place: 
Observers: 
Natanya G., Phyllis W. (reporting) and Liron (a guest)
Nov-28-2011
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Afternoon

At 4 PM there was almost no one at the CP:  no one stood in line in the northern shed and there were only short lines in the two active passageways.  On the other hand, there was a long line for the bus passengers in the western side of the CP.

One young man was waiting in Passageway 5 leading to the DCO offices as well as the post office.  He only wanted to post a letter to a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli prison, but the soldiers manning the passageway were too busy to open the turnstile and let him in (despite the dearth of people at the CP).  The young man waited patiently even though we told him that the post office was most probably closed by this hour.  While we were talking to him, we were joined by a young woman from Jerusalem married to a Palestinian man from Ramallah.  The couple was requesting “family reunification” from the Israeli authorities.  The husband had been summoned to a committee meeting in Jerusalem to discuss the request, but the authorities refused to issue a permit for him to enter Jerusalem in order to participate in the meeting.  Finally, after repeated phone calls to headquarters asking that the two be allowed to enter the DCO offices proved useless, we asked to speak with Alaa, the CP commander.  Alaa opened the turnstile and the two entered to emerge after 10 minutes with their requests denied.  We took the young man’s letter and promised to mail it from Tel Aviv.  And we phoned Hannah Barag and asked her to talk to the young woman.

We met many people at the CP who told us about chaotic conditions on Monday morning, with long lines at Qalandiya from 5:30 AM until 11 or 12 noon.  Some of the taxi drivers told us that they had had a very profitable day, making 10 or more trips ferrying people who despaired at the length of the lines from Qalandiya to Hizmeh CP.

At 16:30, two passageways were operating with only a few people on line in each.  The CP was almost deserted when we left.