Qalandiya

A short but eventful morning

Five inspection stations were open and people went through an open turnstile from the hour of 5 AM, when we arrived, until 5:15, when the lines began to get long.  The soldiers at the booths said that they could only let in people with a permit - which means that they wouldn't allow them in.  The inspection sent back men and women over the ages of 50 and 55, who were allowed to go through without a permit.  One of the women (who had already been in line since 5:00) left the line where they had rejected her, got into a different line, and seems to have gone through, because we didn't see her returning through the enclosure.

At the hour of 5:25, the turnstile at the entrance for line 2 stopped operating.  As a result of this, long lines were created up to the parking lot.  When we called the DCO to report about the problem, they hung up in our face.  At 6:00, because of the long lines, we called to request that the responsible soldier for the Humanitarian Gate would come out.  The soldier at the Hotline responded that he would ask the soldier if he wanted to come or not.  But the DCO officer came out at 6:05and, after showing total indifference to the situation, he opened the gate 5 minutes later.

The lines began to shrink at 6:15 and, at about 6:30, the enclosures were empty and we left.  We did not succeed in clarifying if the guidelines according to which the workers from the industrial area of Atarot will go through the checkpoint in buses is actually in operation now.  We will try to ask next time.

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