Qalandiya, thanks to visitors from the UN, a quick passage at the checkpoint

The Welcome Effect of Guests

Four of the five checking stations were open when we arrived at 5:30 a.m. and the x-ray machine in one of them was not working, so that only people without bags of any sort could use that station. Nevertheless, the lines were short due to the fact that the soldier responsible for opening the turnstiles at the end of the three bar-lined passages known as the “cages” allowed large numbers to pass through each time he opened them. The fifth checking station opened at 5:55. There was a change of the guard at the same hour and the woman soldier responsible for opening the turnstiles did not adopt the policy of her predecessor, causing longer lines to develop.

This situation changed dramatically, however,  once two Civil Administration soldiers arrived to open the Humanitarian Gate at 6:10 and were immediately followed by two people in civilian dress who, it later became clear, were from the United Nations. One of the DCO soldiers checked the permits of the Palestinians going through the Humanitarian Gate as the other briefed the U.N. guests. They were soon followed by additional soldiers from the Military Police (who are responsible for opening the turnstiles and work within the checking stations), a security guard, and a policeman  (it’s been months since we’ve seen so many people on the other side of the bars) and all to the benefit of the progress of the lines through the “cages,” within close view of the guests. The U.N. visitors also took note of our presence.

As soon as they had left, the policeman approached us and initiated a friendly chat in which he revealed a plan to turn the Qalandia checkpoint over to civilian administration – apparently once the new building is completed sometime next year (or whenever). He added that the building would be equipped with biometric eye-recognition technology to make the passage through the security check much faster. We shall see …

At 6:40 we joined the line in a cage that was all but empty and exited the security check in less than 10 minutes.