Qalandiya

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: Chana Stein, Ronit Dahan-Ramati (reporting and pictures), Laurent (visiting French photographer)
Mar-7-2018
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Morning

A horrific morning at Qalandiya, among the worst we have experienced.

05.15. This mild morning we saw no groups at prayer at the parking-lot, and there were few people coming out of the checkpoint on the Israel side.  This was already a sign that the situation inside must be bafor themd – which proved true when we approached the Palestinian side.

Exactly when we arrived the queues collapsed. We heard shouts and saw people pushing one another in a pile at the entrance to the cages. Young folk would climb up on to the metal overhead, so as to squeeze in from above the heads of those in line.

Crowding
Crowding
Photo: 
Ronit Dahan-Ramati
Photo: 
Ronit Dahan-Ramati

The beigel-seller and cigarette-seller were there, but not the cake-stall. The tea kiosk was gone, and the beigel-seller told us that the owner had been forced to move it outside.  The place was chaotic. The shed was full of people who had withdrawn from the queues. Many were taking photographs on their phones, apparently so as to convince their employers as to why they were late. The few remaining benches were, of course, full.  Sometimes individuals or small groups would use the time to pray. At the humanitarian gate crowds gathered, waiting for it to open.

People spoke to us, complaining. They said the situation had been the same on previous days, and it is intolerable. The checking process is impossibly slow for some unknown reason. One man accosts us angrily: “why do you come – you don’t help at all! You just look at us like animals. I’m not afraid,” he says, “I say what I think.”  We said he was free to express his anger, which we totally understood. Telephone calls to the centre did not help, as usual.

One of us went outside to meet our visitor, a French photo-journalist who was coming from Ramallah. We had warned him not to approach the car checkpoint on foot, so as not to risk being shot at.

Waiting inside
Waiting inside
Photo: 
Ronit Dahan-Ramati
Warming up in the sun
Warming up in the sun
Photo: 
Ronit Dahan-Ramati

At 6.10 two guards arrived and began to operate the humanitarian gate. The current system is to open the gate wide and then to stand on the far side of the turnstile beyond the gate, there sorting and controlling the people entering. Soon the blonde policewoman arrived. We did not see the D.C.O. officer, but the crowd was so thick that maybe we simply did not notice him.

The photographer was dumbstruck at the sight. He photographed without pause, video and stills. Some people asked him to photograph them, and spoke with him.  He saw how people first pass their packages beyond the fence before joining lining up for the cages so that at least their day’s food won’t get crushed, and then collect them after they have got through the turnstiles.

The bags are set by the fence
The bags are set by the fence
Photo: 
Ronit Dahan-Ramati
Dawn breaks
Dawn breaks
Photo: 
Ronit Dahan-Ramati

We went outside and told him about the planned future building. At present the metal fences bordering the pathway to the checkpoint are collapsing in tatters after the recent windy spells. For some reason, they are not being repaired.  But there is one big pile of metal sheeting.

Many people gather about the now-outside kiosk. Some are praying. Once the sun is up, many prefer to wait outside rather than in the cold and depressing shed.

Some people despair, and go home.  There goes another lost day of work. Inside there is no improvement. True, the checking station no.5 has now opened, but according to loudspeaker announcements now and again other stations close, seemingly arbitrarily. When the situation is so bad there is no justification in closing stations even a moment!

Next to the humanitarian gate are lots of people. Some are people who are not entitled to use the gate at all, or not yet (older folk without permits who can pass after 8 o’clock). A teacher complains that, although his permit shows that he is a teacher, he is not allowed to pass. The guards and policewoman do try to let through those eligible, only for them to join the oh-so-long and slow lines at the checking stations themselves. A couple of times we saw a guard accompanying a woman with babyinfo-icon, or sick people on their way to hospitals, and seeing them through the gate next to the turnstile at the checking station.

There were such crowds at the gate that it sometimes took them a while to notice children, so as to let them through quickly. One child passed through with his mother and grandmother, and then they waited – we don’t know why – aside.  It was good  to see how the child did not let the chaos unnerve, but had fun running about and climbing the fence and poking his head through.

 A cheerful boy among the bars
A cheerful boy among the bars
Photo: 
Ronit Dahan-Ramati
Crowding
Crowding
Photo: 
Ronit Dahan-Ramati

Some people asked for help for relatives refused permits, and we gave them phone numbers of “Sylvia’s team.” One very angry man said he could understand Hitler. He said Hitler understood what Jews were and what they deserved. We need a Hitler here, he said. He should burn them all, and then he added, “and also Abu Mazen.”

”Only towards 8 o’clock there began to be signs of queues’ renewing, but every now and again these would collapse. Now older folk began being allowed through the humanitarian gate. More than three hours after the lines had collapsed (!!!)  the lines were more or less in order. But there were still many people joining one of the lines in rder to get to medical appointments in time. All the time people joined in from all sides, though some tried to maintain orderly queues. We had to try hard to keep our place when we joined a line, just to reach the cages.

When we finally reached the (righthand) cage, our line advanced slowly but consistently.  When we reached the turnstile we understood why: we learned that it is possible, by moving the turnstile back a little, to squeeze through and to pass one at a time, even when the soldier does not open the turnstile. Two young fellows stood outside and helped each person to juggle the bars of the turnstile back and forth and thus to pass. This is what we did and finally arrived at a checking station (number 2), half an hour after joining the line. Here, too, the line advanced very slowly. The checking was impossibly slow. This, too, took half-an-hour – which included a pause (just before our turn), while the soldiers took an unexplained  break and the station was closed for a few minutes.

While we waited in line we heard a rumour that a man had collapsed earlier, was taken away by soldiers and died later. We had not seen this happen, but because of the pressure and crush, and because we had been outside some time, it seemed plausible. When Hanna Barag checked later, it turned out that a man had indeed collapsed and was taken for medical care. Fortunately, he did not die, but revived and returned home. The situation was bad enough anyway, and we understand that on previous days, was not better. So it is a miracle that there are not more victims in this chaos.

At a certain point our photographer left, to download his pictures in his Ramallah hotel. He planned to return at 11, when there was to be a womens’ march in honour of International Woman’s Day tomorrow. We warned him that there might be tear-gas or worse. Later it was reported that the women had been thus dispersed.