Qalandiya, Wed 10.9.08, Afternoon

16:00 There were two sleeves open for pedestrians.  A holiday atmosphere
with many families and children.
At the vehicular passage, movement was slow.  Here too there were two lane
open
16:18  There is now just one passage open for pedestrians and the line is
getting longer.  We started a round of telephone calls.  For the record, the
response was "The soldiers are eating"
16:40 The humanitarian hotline promised to check. Ruti said that they had a
holiday which was not being respected.  Nadav, from the DCO promised that he
would check also.  The meanwhile, the line grew longer. Within the enclosed area
which leads to the turnstiles, there were about 25 people and the line extended
to the middle of the waiting area.  The festive atmosphere disappeared.
Only at
17:20 did the soldiers finish their meal and from the minute that a second lane
was open, the line disappeared.  When we left the checkpoints, another event
awaited us.
17:20  In the parking lot opposite the vehicular checkpoint, we saw an
ambulance from the Red Crescent and near it, three members of its staff were
waiting for a back to back passage of a boy, Awad P who lost an eye in the
demonstration at Beilin and was in the ambulance that arrived from Ramallah and
was already detained for 40 minutes at the checkpoint.  The ambulance driver
told us that 3 days ago, he arrived at 7 p.m. at the Bethlehem checkpoint with a
person, aged 40, who was suffering from cancer who was kept in the ambulance
until he was transferred to Hadassah, Ein Kerem.  After waiting two hours, when
the sick person had already been transferred to an ambulance of the Red Crescent
together with family members, his blood pressure dropped, as did his pulse, and
they had to order an emergency unit.  They tried unsuccessfully to revive him
and there was nothing left to do but take him back to Bethlehem.
18:00 Ruti spoke with those in charge of the Jerusalem envelope and they
told her that they would speak with those in charge to fascillitate
passage.
18:10 Faadi, the ambulance driver in the parking area said that according
to Dahlia B, the ambulance with the young boy that was delayed at the checkpoint
did not receive a permit to cross and went back in the direction of Ramallah. 
Before the ambulance crew left, we asked them to update us if there was indeed a
permit for the boy to cross in order to get to Saint George hospital.  We did
not hear from them.