Morning

MachsomWatchers: R. H., V. B.CAN WE DO SOMETHING ABOUT SCHOOL SITUATION? SEE END OF REPORT.08:00, Ar-RamBrisk movement, booth at the CP being used for traffic violation reports.A paranoic-sounding blue-uniformed policeman in the booth requested that we move away 10 meters, then to the other side of the road, because we "interfere with police work" (we stood absolutely still), and might overhear some military activity ("peilut mivtzait").He was also worried about us tape-recording his speech. R.V. requested his ID: Shuafat station.Since there was not much to do, we moved on to Qalandiya.08:00, Qalandiya:A long but briskly moving single queue.Lots of mud, one elderly woman walking northbound fell.A detour was made around the checkpoint soldiers' station, outside the roofed area, supposedly to enhance soldiers' safety.ID checkers were older - volunteers? reservists?, plus one woman soldier, plus there was the officer, Amit (?), handling special cases. He was making apparent efforts to be decent, though taking deadly seriously his role in maintaining State Security, and not keen on bending the rules. He was not entirely from "Beit Shamai" [a hardliner] either, and seemed lenient in a couple of cases. Age limit for free passage was 50, apparently both for men and women.Two very young soldiers stood outside the queue and monitored people who passed around the queue, mostly kids on the way to school.The kids were allowed to pass up to age 13; 13-15 were required to bring original birth certificates ("Kushan"). The soldiers' assumption was that photocopies are all fake (i.e. one copy is distributed to numerous people.) The kids who brought photocopies had them torn demonstratively. We watched a totally miserable boy who underwent such a tearing ceremony.The two young soldiers that carried it out, behaved generally obscenely and disrespectfully; V. had encountered one of them in the past (darkish, with a short black beard) at El Khader CP; not necessarily a consistent sadist, but hyperactive, noisy and offensive, with a need to be noticed at all times; put quite a show on our behalf, mimicking some other MachsomWatcher with an English accent.His Russian partner got infected by the flippant obscenity. We tried to convince the officer that offending passers-by is not necessary for maintaining order. Things seemed to improve a bit.School: the big favor ("mehva") was letting teachers through, but students aged 16 or over wererequested a permit from Bet El. A group of pupils from Lutheran School in Ar-Ramwere trying again and again to pass the CP - unsuccessfully. Seemed like a local sport.We could not figure out from the pupils why don't they go to Bet-Elto get that permit. So we called an acquaintance Al-Quds studentin a similar situation; he told us that in Bet-El (a) they make you wait for hours, (b) you have only a small chance of getting a permit, (c) even if you get it, it is given for a short time (e.g. a week). So he gets on with his life without a permit.Ali the cabbie told us before that Surda is open. So we asked the officer what is the point of making schoolchildren's lives difficult and making them go around through Surda; it would be simpler to just let them cross.The officer answered that "This is two kilometers from Israelis, whose safety needs to be ensured". But Surda is open, we argued. "There are "instant CPs" there ["Machsomei Peta" - unnanounced roadblocks], to make sure terrorists do not pass!" - this officer was totally convinced in his role as our Guardian.Later before Ar-Ram we saw such an instant CP, staffed by the Border Police, stopping vans.