Afternoon

Qalandya South. We pass northwards without hindrance, no checking. At the North end a very long line of pedestrians, and the car lane stretching beyond what the eye can grasp. Iyad was waiting for us, looked disheveled, homeless, sad. He lives somewhere outside Nablus. 4 months ago soldiers took away his ID, allegedly because the part where his children's names are written had a tear. Efforts to locate it were to no avail, his ID never reached one of the 'formal' places. So we could only help him return to his village. These 4 month have ploughed their imprint into him, he seems lost, panicky, helpless. His two and a half year old son had a medical problem,but in order to get him into Ramallah hospital he needed some document, such as the ID, that bears his son's name, and more money than he had. Meanwhile his son was staying with a cousin, somewhere, and he had been sleeping around the checkpoint area... hoping for something... waiting. Maybe just because we listened, and empathized, he himself finally came up with the idea to send for his wife's ID, which he did right away. He was also going to see whether the doctor would be willing to accept payment in installments. Two days later, before dawn, I had a telephone call, it was Iyad, happy, elated, his son had been treated, and he was on his way back home with him. Hours later, he called again. All his children seemed to have been told to say something which they dutifully did one by one, his wife too, all in Arabic (which to my dismay I do notspeak, but I could understand 'the music'). At checkpoint, it was mostly the 'usual', no additional 'creative' personal agendas. N. performed miracles, persuading the soldiers time and again to softem earlier decisions. "Your buddies are quite hostile", she says to one of the older volunteers, Naftali, "But you must apply your own judgment". "I know", he agrees flatly. "The soldiers can't, but you can." "We do" "So why can't this guy can't pass? Just give the orders to let him pass. You are here to apply your judgment, you have this power, so use it!!" "Do you know how many 'teachers' there are here?" "You may very well be right, but how can you know, how can one tell or be sure?" "But we do allow, we do" -- and the man went through. No soldier spoke Arabic.Someone who was caught trying to bypass the checkpoint through the quarry(tora-bora) was detained for a bit, then released.Back in E-ram 13 young men were stopped coming back from Jerusalem with no permits and their IDs were being checked. N. asked the soldier if he didn't find it disturbing, as a human being, to see people who are freezing. 'No' he answered, 'I'm on duty now'.