Qalandiya

05.15. When we arrived the shed was empty – there were only short lines at the checking stations themselves. The lefthand turnstile was kept open and people passed through as soon as they arrived. 4 checking stations were open.  All was calm, and the tea kiosk man and the beigel seller were happy to tell us that this had been the situation all week.

When the soldier in the aquarium was relieved, his replacement started closing the turnstile every now and again, although there was no need for this as queues had not formed at the checking stations. Every time he closed, lines began forming in all three cages. The soldier would open only the leftmost one, and the people in the other cages began shouting. Because things were in general quiet today, there wasn’t the usual struggle – people simply moved over from their cages to the left one in order to pass. At one point the soldier at last realized what was happening and left the turnstile mostly open. Other times, when he did open, he opened all three.  He also announced that checking station no.5 was now open and without a line.

Already before 6.30 we entered a cage and passed through the checkpoint in a few minutes.