Qalandiya, Mon 17.12.12, Afternoon

The CP appeared abandoned at 3:30 PM when we arrived.  Three passageways were operating with very few people in each one.  No one was waiting in the DCO passage. We passed through the CP and went to visit the bus passageway on the far western side of the site.  We asked people emerging from the CP how it was working and several answered that the wait was reasonable.

The situation described above continued all the time during our shift.  The line of people waiting in the bus passageway was not long.  The pedestrian CP remained quite empty.  At 4:35 PM we saw that only one passageway was active, but because there were so few people at the CP there was no line and things continued as before.

A man who was begging in the northern shed approached us and asked us to help his brother who was not allowed into Israel (blacklisted by the security services).  He said that his brother's mongoloid little daughter had to undergo an operation in Jerusalem and the brother, who wished to accompany her to hospital, was denied a permit.  We gave him the telephone number of Yael in the hope that she would be able to help.