including Sh'afat

Sho'afat, Ar-Ram, Qalandiya Sunday, Nov. 28 AMWatchers: Hava S, Chana A (reporting)6:40 Sho'afat:Around fifteen to twenty detainees waiting for their IDs. Most of them from Ramallah, a few from Hebron. Otherwise traffic, pedestrian and motorized, flowing. The cage and the turnstile are not in use.The detainees said they had been there since 6:00. When we came back exactly three hours later, these men had long gone, and a few new ones were waiting - about eight.7:00 Ar-Ram:Nervous tension pervaded the CP. There were about seven or eight BP policemen, one of them, his face completely hidden in a dark blue woollen cowl, was particularly tense. His finger on the trigger, he was telling men to open their jackets before approaching. Some did not understand, but luckily there was no shooting. Every man had his ID inspected and checked against the computer individually. This made pedestrian traffic very slow. School children, mostly girls, passed to the side of the line of adults, but their bags were checked. The women had a cursory check. The cars (not many of them) passed slowly after a check.7:45 QalandiyaThe road leading up to Q. is now almost completely destroyed. We took a cab which drove on the right side of the wall. There are still many openings in the wall through which to reach the left side of the road and its adjacent places of industry. To the left of the wall the road is impassible. When we reached the roundabout of Q, there was mayhem on the road. Traffic coming from the right (the east) was piling up since, as we discovered, cars were allowed to pass the CP one by one, every one taking at least five minutes.At the pedestrian CP we discovered tension as well. A lot of shouting and arguing with the people waiting in line. There was one female soldier only checking the IDs, a lot of soldiers and MP milling around and stirring up a storm. Two detainees, one a taxi driver whose keys had been taken from him at 6:00, he said. There was no commanding officer at the CP. After half an hour of watching and calling, another detainee was added: Muhand from the Moked! His hands were handcuffed on his back. What was his "crime"? He had come back from visiting his sister in Ramallah, had been standing in line with his blue ID, and had argued with the soldiers about the fact that many in the line do not speak Hebrew and did not understand the order to open their jackets. This order is given under threat of being shot with the M15 held by the soldiers. Muhand thus wanted to prevent a tragedy, but got into an argument with a self-assured soldier. When the soldier heard M. was from the Moked, there was no end of disdain and spite: You are a bloody lefty! he said and: I will break your nose, arms and legs. We helped Muhand, now not able to use his hands, to speak to the Moked on his own mobile and to pop a sweet into his mouth. We also called and discovered that most of the numbers on the sheet with the Qalandiya and Beth El numbers are no longer valid. We finally got Shadi's number (050-6235618) and he promised to help. When that help did not seem to materialize, we tried to talk to the soldiers and MP (no BP) and told them Muhand was no danger to anyone. Someone with some more authority finally arrived and tried to convince us there were valid reasons for handcuffing M. Finally, after more than an hour of bargaining, being hassled, and trying to prevent worse from happening, we witnessed Muhand being relieved of his handcuffs. He was still there, trying to get one of the soldiers' names in order to submit a complaint, when we left to check back on Sho'afat.