Afternoon

Qalqiliya, 22.11.03, last Saturday before the Id el-fiter holiday.T. A., R.B., D.S.and Y.A.Overall, a shift without any clear-cut humanitarianincidents, something that only brings out the deadlywounded daily life and the impossibility to predictwhat is to be and what are the rules.We arrived 12:30 and found a rather busy checkpointbut without any long queues. Most passers didn't waitmore than a few minutes and so did the few ambulancesthat came through. New reserve soldiers were in thecheckpoint, and the commander wouldn't let us pass tothe exit side, although the people who came fromQalqiliya said it's not too busy and no one is beingheld there.When we arrived we found the head of the coordinationoffice to the civilian population (the MATAK), Rami,arguing with a family of Israeli-Arabs who weren'tallowed to enter Qalqiliya and visit their family sincethey have an Israeli (blue) I.D. and didn't have aspecial authorization. They had five children, theolder was about nine, and he told them the mother andthe children can enter but the father can't. When wetried talking with him, he said the man had "killed"his mother-in-law. After a few more sentences weunderstood that after the father was not allowedthrough they said they are going to her motherfuneral, and Rami that found out they were lying tohim wouldn't let him through. Half an hour later helet all of them in, we don't know whether our presence helped, but they all were extremely thankful.The soldier checking the people coming in Qalqiliyawasn't very nice, and every few minutes stopped thecheck in order to tell everyone standing to gobackwards, and line-up. At one time an old man whoapproached him before waiting for the last personchecked to leave, was returned and forced to waitbehind in the new line that was formed (about threepeople), and when finally was aloud to approach, got along lecture from the soldier about what should hehave done.After a short conversation with the soldiers we foundout all can enter (by foot only, of course) exceptfrom men who carry an Israeli I.D. apparently, in themorning, this was also the case for women. A lady thatcame out of Qalqiliya said that they didn't let herthrough to her family in the morning until thecommander came and told them to let women in even ifthey have an Israeli I.D.When we tried to understand the logic behind thedifferent rules for women and men we were told, thathere they don't think, but simply follow orders.A man with an Israeli I.D., which his parents live inQalqiliya, wanted to enter to give them money for theholiday, and weren't allowed in (because of the I.D.).the soldiers said if his parents need the money theycan come to the checkpoint and cross to the otherside. Or, he can give it to one of the people passingthrough; he must know someone after all. He tried toexplain that he had an authorization for a year thatexpired Thursday, and that he tried to get a new one,but that they said it would take a few hours and hedidn't want to miss a working day, so left and cameback a few hours later, to find the office closed, andit was also closed Saturday. We talked to thecommander, who didn't help, and offered to make somemore calls, but he man said he'll come back Sundaywith the an authorization. Another man came, with a Jordanian passport (and avisa that expired six years ago) and was not allowedthrough. His family lives in Qalqiliya and he oftencomes in and goes out, but this time the soldierswon't let him. Rami wouldn't answer the phone anymore,the DCO said they are not dealing with Jordanianpassports and that we should turn to the Palestiniancenter (moked), who didn't answer the phone, so wecalled the center for human rights and gave him thecard.