Qalandiya

This shift was very rewarding, because
we were listened to by the soldiers, and our interventions were
effective. We realize this can change any minute, it is all so
arbitrary... The most unbelievable success story involved a family
who wanted to say farewell to their sister, returning to the US,
and attend a family gathering beyond the checkpoint. There were
about 4 women and 8 children. One was not allowed through, and got
pretty upset. One soldier couldn't take it, and they were going to
send them all back, while confiscating the ID of the person denied
passage. We managed to reverse that decision. At Bora Bora we found
a group of 6 detainees told to wait right there for their
confiscated IDs. We gave them water, and spoke to the commander S.
about them, and though we didn't wait, we are confident that we
were listened to. We managed to persuade soldiers to see things
differently, even while one of them said to us that because of
people like us, we were going to lose the war...