Qalandiya

There were no long queues (most people
being sent back immediately to Ramallah). Only blue IDs and
orange/green IDs with permits were allowed through. According to
the new "easing up" policy, women with (very) young
babies are allowed to pass without permits. There were three
different groups who checked the Palestinians: regular soldiers,
who were violent, the volunteers (ex-officers), who were
particularly obnoxious (both to the Palestinians and to us), and
two women in civilian clothing and unarmed who were a real address
for help. The volunteers were a constant source of tension. They
hardly looked at the documents (but they decided very quickly when
the documents were "false") and sent most people back to
Ramallah. One of the two civilian women allowed a mother with her
child to pass, after she was denied passage by one of the
volunteers. This same woman was subsequently the subject of an
overheard conversation between two volunteers, who said that by
next weeks those two women could not be here... Today for the first
time we saw Palestinian passports in the hands of two sisters from
Ramallah who were on their way with their children to visit their
parents living in Jordan.