Qalandiya

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Observers: 
Gili Kugler, Ya'ara Rafiah; Translator: Louise Levi
Jan-22-2015
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Morning

It was a quiet morning.

We arrived at 5:00, all the check posts were open and there were no lines. All the turnstiles were working.  The cake vendor "complained" that for some time now business had been bad since everything was working smoothly. The soldier announcing that all the check posts were open didn't shout. We were happy to hear him call out in a friendly voice. We thank him for that.

5:30 A policeman arrived and entered the aquarium.

5:45  Suddenly all the lights in the covered area went out. It was dark. We made signs to the soldier in the aquarium and he called to find out what was happening. Later, he came out to tell us that there was a problem with the lights and that it was being taken care of. It was still dark when we left.

6:00 P. from the DCO arrived, but since there were no lines at the check posts and no people had gathered at the humanitarian gate he didn't open it. Instead, he and a female soldier from the aquarium went to stand at check post 5 to question people at random, or not at random? We had no way of knowing.

6:15  Lines had been formed, so some women had gathered at the humanitarian gate. When P. came to open it they passed through.

6:30 Two photographers fro Ramallah arrived. From what we could understand they were making a documentary movie about the lives of the pupils who cross at the checkpoints on their way to school. They asked to interview us. We were polite but said no.

6:45  We said bye and left. We walked through the check point. The passage was quick.