Qalandiya - Rats still here

Rats still here Two of them, this time. And as we said two weeks ago, where there are one or two  there are others. They show up near the Humanitarian Gate, the most sensitive place in the checkpoint. Enough already!

The  lines were relatively short when we arrived at 5:30 (not extending beyond the entrance to the shed) and remained that way throughout the shift. The Humanitarian Gate was opened by a security guard at 6:10 and the Civil Administration NCO arrived thereafter and was still there when we entered the area of the security check at 7:05.

The problem of the older-to-elderly people who arrive without an entry permit (because they do not need one at their age) and are unaware that they will not be allowed through before 8:00 a.m. remains as acute as ever.  Even after years of observing at Qalandiya, we were astounded by the rudeness with which one of the security guards addressed one of these elderly women who did not understand or couldn’t believe or did not meekly accept the mean decree that she would have to wait for an hour and a half – need we add among the filth and the stench and now the rats – until she would be allowed to enter. (“Go! Get out of here!”)

The latest sign that renovations are beginning in earnest is the creation of a corridor in the parking lot leading to the entrance to the shed. No problem with this except for the fact that apparently no one has paid attention to the raised and fairly high islands that were built in the parking lot to separate between the rows of cars.  And these still islands exist in the corridor, so that anyone arriving with a toddler in a stroller and especially anyone arriving in a wheelchair would have great difficulty overcoming these islands. Is Qalandiya competing with Chelm?

At 6:50, when the lines no longer extended beyond the “cages,” we joined one of them and were out of the security check in less than 15 minutes.