Afternoon

Practical info: the quickest way to reach Surda checkpoint is by taxi from Qalandya taxi-station (next to Qalandya refugee camp after Northern checkpoint). The journey takes less than 15 minutes! Surda itself is in Zone B, hence our presence there is perfectly legal. We recommend to travel with our taxi-driver Ali, who has been a friend of us for quite a while now - (cell phone: 055-235 621), but any other driver will do.Background info: Surda is the LONGEST checkpoint we know of: 1 1/2 - 2 km, and serves as the only passage for the surrounding 35 villages and Bir-Zeit University (5 km's from El-Ersal, where the taxis have to drop off people coming from Ramallah or Qalandya). In addition to all the villagers passing through it, 4000 students and lecturers cross each morning by foot on their way to the university. No vehicles are allowed through, except for cars with an Israeli licence plate, carrying either foreign passport holders, or Israeli Palestinian merchants with special permits to deliver merchandise in that area, or ambulances, after being thoroughly checked and the drivers interrogated. Thus this road has no resemblance to the checkpoints we've seen so far, but rather looks like a VIA DOLOROSA which the IDF controls by one simple army jeep and a few soldiers! The most intense traffic is around 8-9 a.m. when the students cross (and probably earlier, when workers go out for work) and from 4 p.m. onwards, when people return home (atBeir-Zeit University lectures end at 5 p.m) The situation there changes by the day, and sometimes by the hour: the distance is being shortened or prolonged, dirt obstacles either removed or enlarged, the frequency of IDs checking - all those are mostly arbitrary orders given by the army (or improvised by the soldiers at the post). Our shift: We arrived at the El-Ersal "taxi-station" shortly before 4 p.m. and started marching downhill accompanied by Ali, who stayed with us until the end of our shift (no need for that next time!) towards the army jeep. An ambulance carrying a sick child to hospital had just been stopped by the soldiers, who told the child's companions to take him to the hospital by foot. We think our presence caused the commander (Dudi) to finally change his mind and let the ambulance through. But earlier, the foulmouthed soldier (Artur), who had demanded that the people continue by foot, had said: "As far as I'm concerned, let there be blood every day - I feel like murdering those Arabs!" (I. is going to file a complaintagainst him). All in all, 6 ambulalance were let through during our 2 hour shift. Several lecturers on their way home approached us to thank us for our presence, and explained the situation of Surda checkpoint to us. They said that the soldiers' behaviour is a lot more moderate than usually, due to our presence. We exchanged cards.A commercial car (with Israeli licence plate) is being stopped and the driver required to empty its contents. While the man started to unload boxes, he complained that he was 65 years old. We approach the soldiers, who let the man drive on without having to unload his vehicle. Around 5 p.m., when the workers started to return home, the soldiers intensified their random ID checking (men with beards, younger chaps, but also women coming home from shopping with plastic bags, and also one eldery well dressed man with a briefcase - maybe a lecturer - who laughs at the absurdity of the situation). None of the soldiers present speaksany Arabic - so they just grunt or yell at people to bring their IDs, to sit down near the fence, to come back to fetch their papers. The checking takes 3-5 minutes. But then we realise, that a not very young man has been sitting and waiting for 2 hours (on his way to visit his sick son) and we speak to the commander. After 5 minutes the man is released (Dudi's explanation - the usual nonsense: there is a problem with the man's ID). Another man, who has been sitting on the slope for several hours and who is a transit driver who works near Qalandya, tells us that he is Egyptian and has no local ID. The soldiers say that they have called in the (blue) police, to check on his identity and whether his car is stolen. The mandoesn't seem too worried - he apparently knows more than we do, as this has happened to him several times before - he believes that no police has been notified, and he's just waiting for the soldiers to go - then he will drive on too! So much for security as a pretext for all those harassments! But commander Dudi explains to me at great length, that this place is the gateway to the Westbank and to the center of Israel (Gush Dan) - and therefore, the checking policy is of great importance.