Qalandiya

Qalandya North, 17:00pm. A sparse line
of pedestrians, armored corps soldiers, and volunteers. A 13 year
old boy came over, 'Tell the soldier to allow me to pass' he
pleaded. 'True' confirmed the commander, in spite of his age, 'he
can't pass, and if he comes close I'll hit him'. 'No you won't' I
said. 'Yes I will'. 'But you aren't allowed'. 'I am. And I shall.
He upsets me, he sells things here though he knows he shouldn't, he
runs all the time, he disregards my orders'. 'Can't they sell
things here?'. 'No'. 'On whose orders?'. He admitted it was his own
initiative. A young man who lives in Ar-Ram had a valid permit but
was not allowed through. No explanation given. The DCO confirmed
that it is possible that valid permits are not allowed today. Later
on, miraculously, valid permits were rehabilitated, and he was
eventually allowed into Ar-Ram. Another young man from Ar-Ram was
in Beit El earlier and had a request for a permit with him, signed,
stamped, with a few words saying that his request is now
considered, and he will receive an answer within two weeks. The
soldiers wouldn't let him through. 'But what was he supposed to do?
He had no choice, he was on his way to get a permit', 'He can go
back through Surda, if I let him they will all want to'. However,
after three hours he finally passed. The next young man from Ar-Ram
and wanted to return home was also denied. Also a crippled man with
large bags with toys to sell, from Hebron, back home after trying
to make a living, not too successfully. 'To Surda' chanted the
soldiers. 'No, you can't go stay the night at your relatives in
beit Hanina'. None of the people from Hebron were allowed through.
Some were older men, who just stayed, staring, with their enormous
bags on the ground: ' Where will we go?' they mumbled. 'Go away'
yelled a soldier, chasing them away, he too couldn't bare their
nakedly desperate presence. And they left. And then started the
shooting. At first all we could see was dogs running like mad in
the airport area. Immediately after we saw soldiers running towards
the fence, then we heard the shooting. We're not sure exactly what
happened, whether children threw stones, or just chased the dogs
into the airport area, it was too far away to see. later we saw
breathless children hiding between Qalandya refugee camp's houses.
We called all the usual numbers. The shooting seemed different than
those on the day Omar Matar was murdered, so maybe these were
rubber bullets, who have a slightly dimmer sound. A family came out
worrying we may be in danger from the soldiers offering a
shelter.... a hiding place.... It turned out the man is an
Orthopedic Surgeon, whose clinic is right there, the closest house
to the fence, right in the soldiers' firing zone. The wall facing
the checkpoint is perforated with bullet holes, some from live
bullets, some rubber (metal coated with rubber). They placed heavy
thick metal plates leaning on the wall. The soldiers returned after
not being able to track and trace their prey, the children
disappeared, darkness was slowly enveloping everything. a shroud.
We left.

On our way we could see that pedestrian passage out from Jaba’a
(the tunnel under the road which had mounts of rocks preventing car
passage, but not pedestrians) now had piles of earth and rocks all
the way to the top, it seems completely sealed off.