Morning

Though only one lane was in use, passage of vehicles was swift. Among the pedestrians allowed to pass were several people with the "wrong" kind of ID and without permits. Behaviour of Border Police calm. Qalandya (North) At first it seemed as if things were relatively good: shortly after our arrival, two young women were allowed in without permits and the way things were handled did not seem particularly aggressive. However, as time went by, various people were held up, and the same soldier who had appeared like more of a mensch than what we are used to in this place suddenly began to lose his temper. Communication with soldiers at the checkpoint was made impossible by the hostility of the commander, who after talking to us briefly ordered all those manning the checkpoint to steer clear of us and not to engage in conversation. One young man had a document testifying that he has family on the other side, but he was kept from entering. Behind the concrete slabs separating pedestrian from vehicular traffic, about fifteen men and one woman were sitting on the ground, waiting for their documents to be returned. Two young men were sitting at a distance, in isolation, tied together by a rope around their hands. They were students who had been caught with a book thought to be incitement to terror (much later, it turned out that the book merely documented the victims of Israel's assassination policy). In contrast to many other cases we've seen, they were given water to drink and allowed to sit in the shade (but were sent back into the sun twice as punishment for talking to us, and to other people who helped them notify their families). One of the men whose ID had been confiscated had an entry permit valid until May 15. The DCO promised to send someone to look into things within fifteen minutes. Nobody showed up (as we were told, because an explosive device had been found somewhere in the area), but about 45 minutes later all save the two students were released. The waiting period, up 4 hours, was borne with stoicism by some and generated tremendous bitterness in others. While it is doubtful whether our various phonecalls actually had a direct impact, some of the people thanked us profusely. A young Palestinian woman who had never met MW women before was enthusiastic to see Israeli women opposed to the occupation. We learned that the two students were later released.