Qalandiya

We arrived to Qalandiya “late” – at 05:30.  The queue was very long and reached beyond the parking lot, and the progress was very slow although all the posts were open. We complained a few time and received various explanations some of which sounded relevant – but for the people standing in the queue in the terrible cold they didn’t help. When we left at 07:30 it still took us three quarters of an hour to progress in the queue.

The effect of Qalandiya, and for all effects and purposes every checkpoint, on people who are not “used” to seeing this, is very interesting. We may have gotten “used” to the checkpoints in the last 16 years, and perhaps the Palestinians too succumbed to this horror – and then strangers arrive and react as we did at the very beginning. One stops seeing the bureaucracy and sees the people whose rights are trodden on mercilessly and cruelly.

I was asked many questions, one of which – a question we are always asked, is whether we had achievements. I thought that the mere fact that we are documenting there for 16 years is an achievement – that we didn’t break and persevered nevertheless and in spite of everything.

I departed from the students mortified and crushed – an occupation that has a state…