PM

ANATA, A-RAM, QALANDIYA, Tuesday, 20 January 2004 Observers: Roni H, Nora O, Dvorah G, and Lital Y It would have been an unusually quiet uneventful watch had the army not decided to fire rubber bullets, and, reportedly, tear gas at the youngsters of the Qalandiya refugee camp, allegedly injuring one teenager who was taken to hospital , and shattering the windscreen of one of the taxi drivers. All the drivers at the taxi station opposite the "security " fence - which now extends all the way to the main road - were unanimous in declaring the army to blame for "provoking" the youngsters by crossing the fence above the former air-strip even before any stones were thrown (which is the usual "justification" for opening fire). For our part, we clearly saw the jeep and five or six soldiers up on the hillside, and we equally clearly heard the shot that rang out at 16:45, apparently the last salvo in a battle that had reportedly gone on for some time prior to our arrival. IDF fire at Qalandiya youngsters, noted by other Machsomwatchers earlier this week, threatens again to become the dangerous norm - will it take the death of another young Palestinian to end it this time, as it did a month or so ago? The incident was immediately reported to Yuval of the army's Humanitarian Centre. And, as if to underline the importance of reacting at once to any abuse, to complaining on the spot of any irregularity (and equally to demonstrate that Machsomwatch efforts are taken ever more seriously by the IDF), at 19.30, his superior officer Shai contacted Ronni to go over the details again with her. Before arriving at Qalandiya, we visited Anata where Border Police were checking cars and pedestrians in both directions. There was a line of about 10 cars when we arrived shortly after 15:00, with only one, and sometimes two, BP checking, and whenever a slightly more than cursory inspection was made the line lengthened rapidly to between twenty and thirty vehicles. The (by no means hostile) BP on duty, said that his orders were to allow through only those who held blue [Israeli] ID cards or had valid transit permits. He said that he knew that sometimes exceptions were made for the very young or the elderly, but he was carrying out his orders to the letter. In one case we saw the BP jeep suddenly take off in pursuit of a couple who had earlier got out of a passing car when the man claimed that the woman's ID had been "left at home" -- they had then tried to circumvent the checkpoint on a track parallel to the road. But they had been seen, were pursued, caught and subsequently turned back. There were no detainees. At Qalandiya proper there was a single line of about 100 people that moved smoothly enough and there were no detainees. Shortly after we got there, a man in his thirties, with an orange [Palestinian Territories] ID card and an employee's photo-card identifying him as a researcher at the Work Committee, asked for our help after being turned back at the checkpoint. We had met him on 6 January when we waited for one and three quarter freezing cold hours with him while Captain Uriel, the military police duty commander, ran a security check on him (after first dismissing his card as a "clumsy forgery!") and finally let him proceed to his work at a nearby clinic about an hour late. Today, after showing us an IDF document defining medical workers as only doctors, nurses and pharmacists, Uriel dispensed with the check and let him through-- although he gave no sign of recognizing the man. But, he warned, writing down his details, today was an exception, for the future he had better take himself off to the Beit-El DCO [Civil Administration] and arrange for a work permit. "Get this clear," Uriel's second-in-command hammered the point, "You will not come this way again tomorrow without a permit! And that's for real!" The man told us that since January 6, he has crossed the checkpoint almost every day without any problem - so much for consistency! (And maybe Uriel has learned something over the past few weeks since his unit has been at Qalandiya-- today we saw him escort out of the area a man who had been turned back from the checkpoint -- "Anyone can make this type of card," he explained quietly, "I'm not saying it's a forgery, but just that anyone can produce it quite easily!") DG