Qalandiya

05.45. We arrived somewhat late after wandering the streets of east Jerusalem, looking for the meeting-place with our visitors. Inside the shed were orderly lines, not too long, and advancing at a reasonable pace. All 5 checking stations were open. The kiosk was open, and the cigarette seller and the beigel seller were all present. We were relieved to hear that the beigel seller  had not come on Sunday only because the bakery owner was celebrating a family wedding, so there were no beigel supplies that day.

Our friend H. says that everyone is pleased with today’s conditions and hopes that they will continue. But people say that the past two days were very bad, and that the queues collapsed (as reported by our colleagues).  And our visitors, who were seeing a checkpoint for the first time, were pretty shocked.

 Towards 6 o’clock there were people waiting for the humanitarian gate to open. Most women went to join the regular lines when they saw that it would not open on time.  Some time later a D.C.O. soldier arrived, but without a key. After a few minutes she returned with a key and proceeded to open the gate without waiting for a guard. Immediately, women left the regular lines to pass through the gate.

At this stage we went outside to show our visitors the vehicle checkpoint, the wall and the entrance to Qalandiya refugee camp. Coming outside, we saw that next to the shed is a circle with a roadway paved around it, presumably to allow passengers to alight from cars or taxis. Next to the shed entrance there are turnstiles, presumably for people to return from Jerusalem (there does not seem to be place for checking stations). The entry from the Israel side is via the bus parking lot.

 We saw that on the other side building is advancing apace and that they are preparing 5 additional checking stations. In the distance we saw that the stations where people will pass during Ramadan have already been prepared.

In Qalandiya itself our visitors were horrified at the sight. They were impressed by the wall drawings, though, and photographed the pictures and graffiti.

When we returned to the shed the queues were very short. A guard had joined the D.C.O. soldier. Everyone who approached the humanitarian gate passed through after showing a permit .By 7 the lines were short enough to fit inside the sleeves, and the turnstiles remained open. We joined a line in front of one of the checking stations – and it took us about 15 minutes to pass. This was because the station where we were standing was suddenly closed, and we had to move to another.

On the way to our car we met an acquaintance who showed our visitors pictures and video scenes of the queues collapsing last week. As it had been a ‘short’ watch, we drove back to town via Mount Scopus, from where we could see Issawiya and Shuafat camp towards the east, and towards the west we pointed out sights in the Old City and west Jerusalem.