AM

Ar-Ram, Qalandiya, 22.1.2004 Mili M., Valeria S., Rama Y. (reporting) and a guest In Ar-Ram the pedestrians and vehicles pass with no hindrance.Qalandiya checkpoint is staffed by the same group of female and male IDF soldiers we saw the previous weeks. Teenaged high school students must present birth certificates, and stand in the line like everyone else. This is done rudely (“Hey, man, now you fly out of here,” etc.). It seems the soldiers are competing among themselves as to who will be the rudest of them all. There is a confrontation between a high school student, who insists on bypassing the queue, and a soldier, and we manage with difficulty to separate them. And yet, the soldiers are not entirely inhuman, and now and then pedestrians accompanied by small children are allowed passage, and are not sent to wait in the queue. Before we leave, Mili approaches the officer in charge, and remarks quietly on the behavior of the soldiers. He is offended, and says angrily that we take liberties and interfere far too much.