Afternoon

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Apr-29-2003
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4pm: When we arrived we were told that Palestinian taxis on the South side had been again 'coaxed' to go Northwards. The familiar theme is to take their IDs and return them on the other side, forcing them to lose hours and hours. But this time soldiers with pointed rifles shouted different things, like that they had five seconds to drive to Ramalla, and when they did not (could not) comply, breaking the car lights and windows just plain banging on the cars and damaging them. Qalandya North. The peddlers' booths (on the north side) had been destroyed, and the sellers were driven away. A long line, many people turned back, a young man began arguing in Arabic with the soldiers, presenting different scraps of paper. "It is all your fault", snapped at us the woman volunteer: "No one complained until you arrived. It was quiet until now, you certainly create a situation". The man, who seemed slightly disturbed, was finally handcuffed and dragged away, and then just as suddenly released. The soldiers went over and over again to Tora-Bora (the quarry) to hunt for bypassers, and detaineesinfo-icon kept arriving, then after a while some were released. One person was not released. Omar, blue ID. At 9am he happened to be standing close to the taxi drivers while the soldiers were breaking car windows with their gun buts, screaming and ordering everyone to get lost, and was taken to the checkpoint, his blue ID taken away. Omar is a very gentle and dignified looking young man, an electrician from the old city, speaks very good Hebrew, introverted, almost shy. After he was beaten by three soldiers he called 100, who referred him to another number 02-5848222 which he called to say he is detained with no apparent reason, beaten and harassed in Qalandya checkpoint.'We don't have a free police vehicle' was the answer to one call. 'Don't bug us' was the answer to another call, 'Are you threatening us?' was the answer when he demanded that they come, 'We will send a car to come and take you, you are a troublemaker' was another answer. After this last answer he didn't try again. Not long after calling the Moked for help on his behalf he was given his ID back and was free to go. It was six. He had been there for 9 hours, in the sun, without food or drink, his ID was never checked, he was suspected of nothing. He said he wanted to file a complaint. (The following day, he came back, just to see again where it had happened). The bus to Tulkarm which was due to leave at 4.30 full of passengers was detained because the driver's ID was confiscated. Before our attempted interventions worked out, the bus just drove away. Perhaps the driver just gave up and drove off without his ID, we don't know. We followed some soldiers, arriving a second after they had smashed a taxi (Israeli plate) window, and were just confiscating the keys and Palestinian ID of the driver. We showed the officer the smashed window. 'I don't know anything, I wasn't here' he said. The driver was not willing to speak up. The soldiers continued to send off the taxis. 'This is a closed military zone' 'On Thursday there were shots from the quarry', 'We want the route (from the checkpoint to the quarry) cleared', 'It's about time they stop rushing back and forth', 'It is an order'. So they all left. And the place was strangely bare. A couple with a babyinfo-icon after having been denied for a while finally managed to pass. Both have permits. "But the baby doesn't" said one soldier. Another one let them through. They seemed more amused than distressed. A nice man who lives in Bir Naballa, had his ID confiscated, and was detained for a long time. Now and then the soldiers looked for his ID. 'It wasn't confiscated by us' they said. But finally it was found, and probably because of the long hours he was forced to wait they forgot why they had confiscated it in the first place so he just went on, Southwards, with no hindrance, home.