second report

Qalandiya, Thursday, 17.2.05, AM, high alertYehudit E., Hanna B., Roni H. (reporting)We received several phonecalls from Palestinian friends about the complete closure of all the checkpoints surrounding Ramallah since the early morning hours. When calling the army we were informed of "hot alerts" and decided to go to Qalandiya through Begin road and approach it from the west, from Atarot. Before arriving at the roundabout we got stuck in a hopeless traffic jam for about 20 minutes and decided to leave the car on the road side and walk to the checkpoint. When we arrived there at 10:40, hundereds of people were crowding both sides of the checkpoint which was closed and the vehicle movement was completely immobilized. The majority were men stranded there since the early morning hours on their way to work. Military police was reinforced by a great number of soldiers, who kept the crowd under control. A couple of minutes after our arrival the checkpoint was reopened in both directions and people began to cross. We were worried that the resulting pressure on the turnstiles would cause injuries, but people behaved in a very disciplined way and the soldiers checked in a liberal manner, so that all the hundreds of people could pass relatively fast. At 11:20 also cars were allowed to cross in both directions and the checkpoint was back to normal - so normal that Palestinians without the necessary papers were again being sent back north!The sheer existence of the checkpoints makes it possible to perform such procedures as the "freezing of life" for hundreds of people and prevents any advance planning of a predictable life routine!