Qalandiya, Thu 22.1.09, Morning

We parked on the Israeli side of the checkpoint.  On our way in a woman stopped us to tell us how difficult the passage was as people were being allowed through only one at a time and therefore it was taking over two hours to go through.  We were to discover the truth of this report when we got to the other side.

The shed was absolutely crowded with three dense, long lines waiting to get through the three carousels.  An 'ecumenical' was keeping count as the carousels opened, from which we learned that about 120 people passed in an hour.  Each time a carousel opened there was, of course, a jostling to get through. What became clear was that the real bottleneck took place at the checkpoints themselves where crowds gathered and the carousel openings were regulated to allow for this.  The humanitarian gate opened every half hour (after a lot of beckoning and begging on our part to allow people with hospital appointments) when, of  course, as many people as possible squeezed through in the limited time allowed.  As these people use the same checkpoints as the men at the carousels, each time a group went through the humanitarian gate these men  cry in  protest.  We could not manage to make contact with an officer in charge.  The police and soldiers in their hut diligently refrained from making eye contact with us, on the whole.  When we did manage to ask why progress was so slow, one policeman just said 'there are problems.'

At 9 a.m. we decided to leave together with others through the humanitarian gate.  We were then held for 30 minutes in the 'enclosure' before being allowed to proceed to the checkpoint.  Here we really experienced  hell!  To the loudspeakered calls of the woman soldier  'wahad, wahad!'  and 'ir'ga',  crowds were pressing at the turnstile which frequently jammed because of the pressure.  Each time the turnstile had to reverse a bit so that it would contain only one person – as the soldier insisted – people who were close to entering once again got pushed back into the throng and other, stronger, folk would get closer.  Once through the turnstile one had to put one's packages on a plastic tray before putting them through the inspection machine.  People who didn't do so then had to retrieve their parcels and pass them through a second time in the tray.  Remember that all this was done one person at a time.

We finally made it through the checkpoint at 10.30 – That means that it takes one and a half hours after going through the gate!  And this does not take into account the waiting time before the original carousel and that this was a late hour- usually very quiet because all the workers have passed through.

We were not able to ascertain if this was a 'once only' procedure and, if so, who was responsible, or – even worse – if this is a new policy.  But it requires urgent attention.