Qalandiya

Long pedestrian line on the southern
side of the checkpoint. The soldiers explained that last week they
did a spot check on a few people going north and found three
"wanted" people, consequently they have resumed the ID
checks for the north bound direction as well. We did notice,
however, that they were still randomly selecting people to check
and let large groups of people, with all color IDs, pass without
stopping. These particular soldiers (one regular soldier and two
older volunteers) were new to the checkpoint and did not know who
we were and were hostile. The northern side was nearly empty and
practically everyone was allowed to pass. The soldiers on the
northern side were cooperative. Two young men were waiting for
their lost IDs. Their stories how this happened kept changing some
it was difficult to determine where their IDs could be. The
soldiers checked their folder of withheld/lost IDs, and theirs were
not there. There were two "trainers" of the volunteers
there, wearing civilian clothes. They explained their role their to
us and we told them about our experiences with the older volunteers
(we politely told them that the volunteers are often the most
abusive and patronizing people at the checkpoint) and they said
that they would pass the point along to the people that they
train.