Qalandiya

For an hour and a quarter I stood with the men and women opposite the locked gate near the DCO.  An hour and a half of strained nerves for me and the anguish of despair for them.  There is a name for every man and every man bears on his shoulders a bundle of suffering and holds in his hand a bundle of documents without which he does not exist.  They arrive here armed with patience.

 

Also Adham, 5 years old, who is accompanying his father, sat for hours and waited patiently.  Only I, who came from a different place, was impatient. When the clock read 4:10, and the work day of those sitting in their offices came close to its end, did the gate open. Then, like a heart on fire, the anger burst out.  But this impulsive outburst was not aimed at those responsible for the situation.  The Palestinians, whose mentality has been configured by the occupation for decades, learned that it is better to behave submissively towards those who are ruling.  They, who have been in crowded conditions for long hours, with a cry or a protest, next to the iron bars, began to shout and push and curse one another.  The surface reason was to get ahead in line.  The women moved away from the bellicose men's group and I left, in order not to see them in this sorry state.