Qalnadiya

16: 30 - Kalandia South New queuing arrangements: 2 parallel, straight, narrow lanes, leading up to some kind of "box office", behind which 2 volunteers sit and do the checking. Division of labor between the regular soldiers, who inspect the cars and the volunteers, who examine the pedestrians. There is heavy traffic and the queue is long. The checking is done in an efficient and polite way. But when a person is refused passage, there is absolutely no one to turn to! Total, though polite, indifference and alienation.The same attitude was applied to us. "You are not allowed to pass or to be here" - full stop. We had to call several times the office of Roni Numa, the new area commander, until we got permission to move north.17:00 Kalandia NorthA Bulldozer levels the ground around the checkpoint, so that the soldiers can see, undisturbed by the hills, right through to the southern side.Regular soldiers, no volunteers.We realize that there are detainees in the concrete cell. How many are they and since when are they held up? The Russian soldier Leon declares that he does not speak Hebrew, but also not Russian! Gradually we find out that 19 men are detained in this tiny cell since 3 o'clock (3 days ago, 40 men were there - we hear) We call the Moked (Center for the Protection of the Indivudual).17:30 The darkness makes the examination process more difficult and the soldiers start to prepare for the closing of the checkpoint. The Moked tells us that the spokesman of the Civil Administration is "taking care" of the case of the detainees - but nothing seems to move. The soldiers try to convice us that the detention is an educational one (they have to learn that...) and therefore absolutely necessary and beneficial.18:00 The checkpoint is officially closed and every single person has to be negotiate his case separately. By the way, the Southern side remains open!The Russian soldiers who have detained the Palestinians, end their shift and are being repalced. The Moked reassures us that the case of the detainees is being taken care of.18:30 More scenes of despair because of the closure. "Where will I sleep tonight?" Indifferent gestures of the soldiers. We call the spokesman. His answer: there is not sufficient illumination to maintain regular checkpoint activity and the Jerusalem municipality does not provide lighting.The detainees are still in the cell and no decisions concerning their release.19:00 We are loosing patience. We look for the checkpoint commander in the South. It turns out, that he does not know, that he is supposed to check 19 IDs with the computer!! The Russian soldier Leon has kept all the IDs in his pocket, went for dinner and only upon return passed the IDs over to the commander. Leon succeeded in fooling everybody, including the spokesman!! (Ond of us cannot restrain herself and informs him personally!!) The checking of one ID takes 5 minutes on the phone! She assists in the reading the ID numbers.20:30 At last, the 19 men, some of them rather elderly, were released!A letter of complaint about Leon will be written to the area commander. Our experiences with the soldiers and with the spokesman were reported to the Moked.The lawyer, Danny Seidemann, will be informed of the early closure and the lighting "problems"