Afternoon

Before we arrived at Qalandya, we learned that a large number of taxis had been impounded at Qalandya. Amira Haas from Haaretz newspaper was contacted and she checked it out. She was told by the Border Police said that the taxis were confiscated because "they were driving in the Jerusalem area". When we arrived at Qalandya, we saw between 30 and 40 taxis parked at the air strip. . We tried to get in touch with the Jerusalem Border Police commander, but his number had been forwarded to the Civil Administration spokesman. We left a message for him but never got a return call. We called the office of the head of the Civil Administration, and a secretary suggested that we call the deputy tonight at about 10:30. We want to get the official version from him as to the rationale for taking all the taxis off the road. Meanwhile, we heard from Arnon Reguler (Haaretz correspondent) that he spoke to the police and they told him the same version they gave to Amira, namely, that these taxis were driving in Jerusalem area and were confiscated in order to teach the Palestinians a lesson but would be released within one day or two. We explained that 8 of them had been confiscated in Jaaba (not Jerusalem area by any standards) and many others at the Qalandya checkpost. Reguler said that he was not supporting the police's version, just telling us what they told him. We agreed that if in two days the taxis are not returned, we will go back to him and pursue the matter to the end. In the meantime, we have some names of drivers who say their keys and car papers were taken away but they were not given any documentation by the police. Amira Haas (Haaretz journalist) will follow this case in its broader context of freedom of movement for Palestinians.The Moked has a list of the names of some of the drivers and they were also told that the cars would be returned within one day or two. It seems that all the calls, from Amira, Reguler, the Moked and ours, had some effect and now the police are considering returning the confiscated taxis within a matter of days and not a month.At 5:00 we saw that one Palestinian taxi driver, accompanied by a soldier, was taking a lot of packages out of his taxi (parked in the airstrip) and loading them into a cart. Obviously he managed to get permission to extricate his merchandise.At the northern checkpoint we saw a group of very energetic soldiers questioning the taxi drivers already inside the Kalandia refugee camp, that go to Ramallah. They took the dispatcher for questioning and asked for the names of the taxi owners. He replied he didn't know them and was taken into the holding bunker at the northern checkpoint for further questioning. Two of us stood at a distance on one side of the bunker and the other two at the other side of facing the open door. We didn't detect any abuse going on and after about 20 minutes, the detainee was let out and told to wait by the lane of cars. By the time we left at 18:30 there were no lights at the checkpoint. We heard an officer claim that the fuel for the generator had been stolen and therefore they couldn't light the checkpoint. As of now --- a full day after the events above, I have not heard from the Civil administration officer. I was given the number of the spokesperson: 056- 234081) and will try to speak with her later. Reguler wrote a short note about the incident in which he relayed the information given to him by the police without any further details. Amira is preparing a feature about it.Southern CheckpointThere was no checking whatsoever at the southern checkpoint. At the northern checkpoint (on the way to Jerusalem) there is a volunteer who happens to be a gynecologist and whenever someone tries to go through with a physician's id, he or she has to go through a test to check his/her medical knowledge. We tried to argue with him that anyone facing a soldier who has absolute power over his comings and goings will not be very willing to demonstrate his medical knowledge but this volunteer felt it was his duty to prevent 'false' physicians from going through the checkpoint.