Qalandiya

5:00  When we arrived there was already a long line and only three inspection windows were open.  Within about 15 minutes, all five windows were open and workers went through the carousels quickly.  Perhaps the reason for the efficiency was because of the two effective police people on duty:  A policeman and policewoman who see as their duty not to harass or obstruct people from going to work, to study, to go for treatment at hospitals or to visit; rather to let people live their lives.

There were three incidents of blacklisting:  one man who did not want to speak with us about his status; one who forgot his magnetic card and one who Ronny tried to help. This man had a valid permit to work but when he got to the inspection window, he was told that he was blacklisted.  They would not tell him why.  Ronny requested that the soldier on duty from the DCO find out why the man was not allowed to go to work, especially since he working for a company that was contracted by the army, but the soldier didn’t want to.  Ronny stood her ground and insisted the soldier check.  When the soldier finally called, he told us and the man himself that the man is indeed blacklisted but they refused to tell the soldier why.  The man then had to wait until 9:00 in order to go to the DCO office at Qalandiya to find out why his permit was not accepted.

Only five people came to go through the Humanitarian Gate.  At that point the line at the carousels was so short, we told these five people to go through the carousels.

6:30 Since there was no more line, we left.