Afternoon

MachsomWatchers: T.Sz., Ch. B., N. A., S.A.A-Ram checkpoint: no queues, no detained people, neither on theway back.Qalandiya checkpoint: very long queues of cars & pedestrians. Thecars' line goes quite quickly, the same goes for the pedestrians although people without permits are usually not allowed to pass.One blind man with an escort - he's allowed to pass without the escort who has no permits. The soldier looked for someone (from the pedestrian queue) who had a tasrich found one &asked him to help the blind man instead of his escort.A little later a blind woman arrived to the checkpoint companied by her young daughter. The same soldier was ready to let the blind woman pass without herdaughter. When we asked why he just said "the daughter does not pass - that is a principal & it's final" & and indeed for about a half an hour he tried to findthat woman an escort from the line - but he was unsuccessful - and eventually had to let the mother and daughter to pass.A group of three fifteen-year-old students who study in Qalandiya and live in Nablus were not allowed to cross. All of our attempts at helping them were unsuccessful. The Center for the Protection of Human Rights wrote down the names of the students, checked and came back with the same response of the humanitarian center and the MATAK: to pass through the Surda checkpoint. We made sure that they get on a taxithat takes them to Jaba and from there there's a bus to take them to Nablus.Boris (the soldier who mimics the voices of the women from the MachsomWatch) is still there and tried very hard throughout the entire shift to bother us.We checked with one of the soldiers about the child who got arrested last week for throwing rocks, and we were told that he was transferred to the Neve Ya'akovpolice, a file was opened and he returned to Qalandiya on foot that same evening.On the exit from Qalandiya, we noticed in the southern part of the checkpoint that there was a person arrested in the soldier's hut. We were told that a Palestinian had been arrested after pulling a knife on the soldiers. We were not there, but we did see the knife. The person arrested was waiting for police officers to take him away.The new arrangement of putting a "New Jersey" by the checkpoint makes it very difficult for the Palestinians. We discussed this with Phares whom we met in A-ram, and he replied that the army meant to make it permanent.