Morning

Qalqiliya Checkpoint, MON PM, 1 Dec 2003.Watchers: R., Ch., D. and A.(guest). About 100 meters before turning onto the small road to Qalqiliya, there is a checkpoint on the main road, Hwy #55. We stopped there first.The checking of permits seemed to be going smoothly. There was, however, a man traveling by bicycle who was stopped and turned away. We were told by the soldier on duty that he had received an order today: that bicycles are no longer allowed on the road. The man asked for our help when we met him on his way back to Qalqiliya. A jeep with soldiers pulled over as we were talking and tried to help as well.Unfortunately, it turned out that the man's permit had expired yesterday. At the Qalqiliya checkpoint, there was freedom of movement. This included vehicles as well as pedestrians.The soldier asked us to move our car to the other side of the barrier, which we did -- even though last week we had parked in that same place.However, when he did not want to let us go through the checkpoint to the Qalqiliya side, we didn't heed him him. We told him: it was our right as Israeli citizens. From there, we went to Ahzon. There we were told (and observed) that there was freedom of movement there as well. Traffic was moving in and out of the village.We were told that the Blue Police had been very active in the last few days giving traffic tickets as vehicles drove out of the village. One man we spoke with, told us he had been fined 50 NIS for not wearing his seat belt, even though he did have it on.