Qalandiya, Sun 21.10.12, Morning

5.10am

When we came there was a reasonable line and a sense that at the 5 checking booths the lines are not moving and thus it took 45 minutes to go through. It became 1hour 40 minutes once there were many people and it seemed that the snail pace became even slower. We made phone calls - at the MP Qalandiya headquarters they told us they are not willing to talk to us and the DCO headquarters told us the officer is on the way.

By then, a couple of minutes past 6, the line became chaotic and the crowd became more and more angry. So did we. Every now and then a policewoman would announce in Arabic that all the 5 lines/checking points are opened as if the people could not see that although it is true but only about 3 people get checked in 10 minutes. The MP policeman in the box, a very friendly and really helpful and a rare case of a person who opens the door and looks at us and talks to us - but even he was trying to explain away a fact that was very obvious - the soldiers in the windows inside the checking points were extremely slow this morning. When the DCO soldier told us that the checkpoint is open 24 hours and so people can come earlier, I felt that this Kafkaesque situation is one of the most frustrating experiences we have at the checkpoints when trying to solve a humanitarian issue at the spot - the soldier/officer and I are standing together looking at the same gate and both see something else. Any DCO officer KNOWS that work permits are from 5am till 7pm, so of what relevance is it to tell the Palestinian that Qalandiya is open 24 hrs!

And thus we were not surprised when we were leaving through the vehicle checkpoint that the soldiers said both - they knew about MachsomWatch and also that Israelis are not allowed to travel to area A and so they have to detain us and make inquiries. It did not take long and the result of their inquiry was that we may continue.