Afternoon

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Apr-7-2003
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A usual tough day in Qalandya. A long queue of pedestrians, but passage is rather quick. 3 volunteers (1 woman + 2 men) check IDs in a correct manner. One of them speaks Arabic and does his best to listen and help. 4 Palestinians are caught trying to pass through tora bora (2 men and a women with a young child) - the women shouts that one of the soldiers hit her son - the soldier's response: "She hit me" - the volunteer permits her to pass but the soldiers refuse - she is detained. There is tension between the young soldiers and the volunteers (especially the "nice" one). A blind Palestinian without a permit is allowed to pass by the volunteer, but one of the soldiers objects and the blind person is sent back to Ramallah. We interfere (we called Shadi) - and he is permitted to pass.On our way to tora bora we speak with taxi drivers who complain about the usual problems. We take a taxi to Java (no checkpoint there) and all the way we see passages blocked by the army.