Afternoon

Qalandya South - many cars and pedestrians, very lively in spite of the incessant rain. A few soldiers stopped cars apparently randomly, predominantly Transits, with no definite purpose (it seems) but to find fault, probably just another chapter in the taxi's harassment. Eran the officer said this was a new order from the Machat .While we were waiting for Eran, a Transit backed up and in fact hit D. who cried out, after which he stopped. Then, to our sheer amazement and terror the driver was pulled out of the car, pushed to face his car, legs forced apart with a kick, hands spread out as well, body pressed with one hand against the car, while the other hand searching whether he was carrying a weapon, D. told the soldier that nothing had happened, that she was fine, that she wasn't hurt, and please not to punish him, she begged, but to no use. After making sure the man was unarmed he turned to D. and said: 'do you want us to call for an ambulance, what should we do to him?' It turned out that the man, had not only almost 'run D. over', but also was using a Jordanian passport and driver's license for which he was detained, had to hand over his keys, and wait. The Moked was taking care.Pedestrians are free to pass. Qalandya North - The terrain which spreads on from Qalandia North northwards, Ramalla-wise, is terribly muddy, it is very difficult and depressing to have to wallow through it, people complain.An ambulance passed the row of cars (with no complaint from the other people waiting) and arrived close to the soldiers, his red lights blinking, the soldiers continued with their casual checking, time seemed to stretch, the driver's face intense, our stomachs sewn in, waiting, finally I. bursts out: 'why don't you check the ambulance' and surprisingly the soldiers respond, they tell the car they were checking to move on, however keeping his ID until he returned, the ambulance was checked quickly and released to move on. We noticed a man waiting, seemingly rooted in place, it turned out he had been there since 9.30 a.m. He is a student in the Abu-Dis branch of El-Quds, lives in AbuDis and was on the way there that morning. He and three others were caught crossing through the quarry/Tora bora, their IDs were confiscated, three of them had gotten their IDs back, but he hadn't, and had been waiting ever since at the checkpoint, wouldn't leave his 'post'. R. called the Moked, while D. went to try and see whether the ID was in the checkpoint.One of the district commander's aides who wasn't there but returned her call, he checked with the checkpoint soldiers, who told him there was a stray ID but with another name, they said there was a mishap, that the wrong Palestinian took the wrong ID, then Eitan appeared at the checkpoint, to take care of the problem. And together with a 'genuinely helpful Kaf tefer volunteer (American accent) they came up with a temporary solution of writing an alterative permit for him. And he was sent on south. Before he was about to leave the checkpoint with his crumpled permit one of us was wise enough to check again, and the supposedly wrong ID turned out to be the right one.