Qalandiya, יום ה' 4.9.08, אחה"צ
Ramadan
Qalandiya 16:00 we
arrived.There were two
positions open. Tens of people were
waiting and the passage was slow despite the fact that there were relatively few
people waiting. It ook over 50 minutes
to pass through the checkpoint. It was
hot and stifling. A nervous woman
soldier was shouting “Carousel, one by one”.
The i.d.’s of several
people were taken even before they passed through the turnstiles. One was called, one who was able to go
through. The movement was slow with the
soldier continuing to call “one, one, carousel – what, do you want a pillow so
that you can lean on it in the carousel”. Three high school students from the American School in Ramallah were waiting. They allowed one of them, a sixteen year old,
to cross since she had an i.d. The two
others who were 15 and didn’t have i.d.’s but rather birth certificates. The
mother of one of them was waiting on the Israel
side. We contacted the district command
and were answered by Alona who said that it was not her job to assist but rather
to give orders. The girls returned to
Ramallah.
A man, who was in his
60’s, a Palestinian with an Israeli court order saying that he should not be
deported from Israel was not allowed to cross through one of the inspection
lines. According to him, he presents the
order every day and with it, is able to cross into Israel. He went to a different post and was allowed
to pass.
The shouting soldier
yelled at a young boy who was wandering about among the people at the checkpoint
selling pages from the Koran and was told to go home.
An elderly couple
with green i.d.’s tried to cross but were not allowed to and went back. We passed through the checkpoint. When Soli asked the soldier not to shout, she
was responded to with a hand motion indicating that she should get away from
there. Afterwards, I crossed and when I
showed her my i.d., the soldier said “You whore”. In answer to my question as to why she was
speaking that way to me, she answered with a grin an movements for me to get out
of her sight. The second turnstile was
closed for a few minutes so that we would not be allowed to cross through and
was then reopened.
17:50 We left.
There were just a few people and vehicles still waiting but passage was
still slow
.