including Anata

Anata, Qalandiya, Thursday, 30/12/2004, AMObservers: Ruth E., Aviva W., Rama Y. (reporting), aguestAnata. An exceptionally massive border police andcivil police presence, many of them armed to theteeth. Palestinians told us a house was about to bedemolished. Soldiers and officers we talked to deniedit, and insisted that this was just "routine". Ruthicalled the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition.There were about 5 detainees. One of them was a veryfrightened boy of 16 or 17 who was held separately,crouching on the ground, and surrounded by four armedsoldiers. There was no way we could either talk to himor to his guards.And of course, as always, there was this endless carline. Waiting time: over an hour. The very impolite and impatient CP commander agreed toanswer some of our questions: there's nothingexceptional about the large number of police in theCP; the detained boy was a drug addict; the reason forthe traffic jam was - could it be otherwise? --"security". Qalandiya. We decided to go through Ar-Ram and not tostop there, as it was getting quite late. We weredetained however for about ten minutes by a roadblockjust in front of the CP. Everything seemed calm inAr-Ram.The way to Qalandiya is as bad as always. There areworks done on the eastern lane, but it is closed. In Qalandiya, like last week, the soldiers did notharass the vendors at the northern entrance. Passageof pedestrians and vehicles was more or less smooth,and there were no detainees.