'Atara, Qalandiya, Mon 10.11.08, Afternoon

2:00-5:30 PM

We drove through the village
and saw all the horses and their young riders, who for lack of work
have nothing else to do, but roam the area. The owner of the grocery
store invited us to sit down (we refused the coffee). He was eager to
tell us what happened last week to his brother. On Tuesday, Nov. 4^th
his brother Eid Barakat noticed that the settler who lives illegally
under the village and has taken possession of the house and land of
people who have left for Jordan and cultivates it, suddenly had entered
Eid’s land with his tractor. Eid came running down and stood in the
way of the tractor. The settler, Yisrael, shouted at him to move, or
else he would run him over with his tractor. Since Eid didn’t move,
he indeed drove over his foot before stopping. Eid called the police.
A policeman (Ilan) arrived and asked Eid what kind of an Id he had (then
consulted with his commander Zeev) and not only didn’t he call an
ambulance he also didn’t write anything down, but told Eid that he
could file a complaint at the Bet El Police Station. After Eid had been
released from the hospital (a neighbor had called an ambulance) he traveled
to Bet El where he was told that he should have applied to the Police
Station in Givat Zeev. But in Givat Zeev no one wanted to listen to
him either. He now employed a lawyer to file a complaint against the
‘thief’ Yisrael.

Gamal visits his wife and children
about twice a week, walking through the fields. He would love to enlarge
his store and thus have a little space to live with his family, but
is sure that whatever he builds will immediately be demolished like
the other houses in the village, which suffers from extreme housing
shortage.

When we arrived at the Atara
CP there were hardly any cars, so we first drove into the village and
tried to talk to the owner of the store, who called an English-speaking
friend to tell us about their plight. He said that the wait every morning
and evening is about half an hour and causes much suffering. Towards
the end of the Ramadan the situation had improved, but now it is as
bad as before and of course especially hard on older people and the
sick. The Givati soldier at the CP after checking our Id’s told us
that the commander of the regiment had ordered that we could not park
in the vicinity of the CP, so we had to move the car all the way near
the metal workshop. Meanwhile the queue had reached beyond the turn-off
and the usual hooting and blocking took place. There were two lanes
for outgoing cars, but one was used for checking and sometimes even
the second so that the length of the line increased and some drivers
became impatient and tried to bypass the line. Of course they were promptly
‘punished’ and sent back. We timed about 25 minutes waiting time.
Some cars started arriving from the side alley a sure sign that it had
been worth their long detour. We left when most of the rush was over.
Our Id’s were scrutinized meticulously and the contents of the car
carefully checked while another soldier took a picture of our Id’s
and the car and  told us that as soon as we were leaving the pressure
was lifted too and that we should reach our own conclusion from this
fact; insinuating that we were the ones who had caused the hold-up