Morning

At E-RAm the pedestrians passed quickly but there was a long line of traffic.We went straight to Jab'a checkpoint. The village has been surrounded by a fence of barbed wire. The only car exit had been blocked for a few days (partly with refuse brought by a refuse truck). The line of traffic at the checkpoint was enormous - up to 100 vehicles. The local drivers feel that they are being held back to allow the easy flow of Jewish settler traffic from Beth El etc.towards Jerusalem.The checkpoint was lifted at about 9, when the rush is over - once again, the arbitrariness boggles the imagination! Just beyond the checkpoint one comes to the actual road junction itself. Here is another taxi-stand, for people to continue towards Anata(?). There were people who came from Ramallah and were making their way to Abu-Dis in this roundabout way.By the time we got back to Qalandya (about 8.45), things were pretty quiet, with no line at all going north. Those passing were being checked by a pleasant young woman who, it transpired, is a volunteer! She is post-army and a Law student and had been on the job for 2 days out of a 2-week stint. The soldier who was with her is from a fighting unit, has been in the army for 18 months and is very unhappy about being used for this job. I should point out that there is no shelter for the waiting pedestrians. Also, the problem of a parking place for taxis at Qalandya has not been solved. The owner of 3 transits had 2 of them impounded for transporting Palestinians without passes. When he reclaimed one of his vehicles he found that the inside light and his radiotape had been stolen and the rearlight cover broken. We phoned the commander of the Ramallah DCO who advised him to lodge a complaint. I wonder if he has sufficient confidence if the system to do so. When we got back to E-RAm we noticed a group of 15 men standing in line with their backs to the road. They had been picked up - individually - by the border police as they tried to slip in via the surrounding fields. They had been held for up to 2 hours.One elderly man of the group said, if only they would treat them with some "kavod" (honor) - he was old enough to be their grandfather.