Qalandiya

The fear of the too-swift responses of armed Jews managed to keep the Friday Palestinian worshipers on the "right" side of the CP 

9:00 
when we arrive, we find the terminal pretty quiet and almost empty - a rarity for us and a very unpleasant one... It is never really pleasant at Qalandiya but this is a different experience. It is scary to see how fear runs on all sides. 
It’s very dirty - behind the fences on the side of the soldiers we actually observed a young man with a broom. 
The drivers are waiting for the few Friday passengers, sitting idle in the pleasant sunshine next to the kiosk. They explain the meaning of the silence: people are afraid to pass, afraid to be in areas where Israeli civilians and security personnel are walking around with weapons and react to every movement with precise shooting. Also people, who worked in cafes and restaurants on the Jewish side, were dismissed. One of them sat with the drivers and said that he has no money to buy food for his family. 

A group of older men were sent back. We called DCL and received a puzzling answer: older men are entitled to pass except on Fridays (?!). A soldier then appeared and was willing to talk to us over the fence. We tried to find out whether there is a new policy regarding the passage of older men. He first claimed that women over 50 and men over 55 are allowed to pass, but when he heard what the DCL told us, he stated that if this is what a DCL representative said - DCL knows. 
A 55-year-old man was sent back. They told him he was prevented from entering Israel, but he doesn’t know why. For quite a while now he goes from one DCL to another in an effort to find out what is wrong and why he is prevented but to no avail. 
A disabled man rolls in in a wheelchair. We were able to get the attention of the soldier in a bunker. After a pantomime through the windows of the bunker she summoned someone to open the gate for him. After 10 minutes the appropriate someone arrived and opened the Humanitarian Gate for him.  
Although all the crossings operate and there are very few people lines are created in the checking queues behind the turnstile. We assume that nowadays the checking is unusually thorough. 
In light of the emptiness we retired early.