Qalandiya

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Ronny P. and Marcia L. (Reporter)
Jan-5-2014
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Morning

05:00 The cold was penetrating.  You could feel it in every part of your body.  There was already a long line that stretched from the parking lot to the entrance of the carousels.  The soldier inside the aquarium opened only one of the carousels although all three of the carousels were filled with people, a situation that made the workers in carousels 2 and 3 impatient and the atmosphere tense.  Ronny asked the soldier to open all three of the carousels and let fewer people through each time.  From a psychological standpoint, the workers would feel they were making progress toward the inspection gatesinfo-icon.  To her credit, the soldier listened to Ronny and opened all three of the carousels.

We also noticed that only three of the inspection gates were open.  The fourth gate was opened only after Ronny again spoke with the soldier and told her how long the line was outside.   In the meantime, the line continued to grow longer until between 05:30 and 06:30, the line stretched almost to the round-about outside the parking lot.  We felt the workers’ tension and the pressure that they began to express.  Ronny called the Humanitarian Line of the Civil Authority to complain that only four of the five inspection gates were opened and immediately the person on the line transferred the call to police headquarters.  The policeman who answered said they were experimenting with opening only four gates instead of five at Qalandiya.  Ronny told him that closing even one inspection gate is intolerable because of the number of people who cross the checkpoint every day.  Within a short time, the fifth gate was opened.

06:00  The Humanitarian Gate was opened and everyone who arrived went through within a few minutes, except for one unpleasant instance.  An older gentleman approached the Humanitarian Gate and asked to pass through even though he did not have a permit to do so.  He had recently gone through a serious operation and he even showed the soldier at the gate the long scar on his stomach which was obviously new.  The man said that he was afraid to go through the carousels because of the pushing and shoving.  The soldier refused to let the man through the Humanitarian Gate and when we asked why, the soldier answered:  “I’m not a doctor.  How do I know what happened to him?”  (Welcome to the Humanitarian Gate.)

Today, the policeman, M., who is a bully, was on duty.  He doesn’t speak with people, he barks.  We have written about this policeman several times:  he represents the ugly face of the occupation.  We are embarrassed that he is responsible for the lives of thousands of people; he is incapable of relating in a human way to these thousands who pass through Qalandiya.