Qalandiya, Sun 4.12.11, Morning

We arrived at 05:30 and there was a line and people climbed over the carousels to jump the queue which is always a symptom of a long wait and we saw why. Only 2 of the 5 gates/posts inside were opened and all moved very slowly. we noticed,too, that on our way we saw very few people coming out of the checkpoint after being checked.

The EAPI man arrived at 04:30 and told us that the line reached beyond the waiting hall into the parking lot. When we called the police headquaters at Qalandiya and  drew their attention to the fact that all the posts are not oepn and that the soldiers who arrived for their 6am shift scream into the loudspeakers so loud that actually one hears nothing, we were told that all our comments should be directed to the DCO . We were almost smothered when we tried to help an elderly very ill woman on her way to hospital to get to the beginning of the humanitarian gate. She wasn'teven  aware that after we were so wonderfully helpful we saved her about half an hour of waiting because after she goes through the humanitarian gate she will join the rest of the people at the checking pointsagain.

Only the very ill people who a and wait re in treatment in either Palestinian or Israeli hospitals enjoy the services of the volunteers who drive them from the checkpoints to the hospitals and back. But there are many people in villages who may not be aware of this and  the way to the hospital is long and hard. Both groups of people have to go through the checkpoints with the long wait involved with no toilets and masses of  other people pushing and all trying to get to jerusalem to work in order to support their families

When we left around 08:00 the waiting hall wasn't empty yet.