Qalandiya

Ar-Ram: we arrived approximately at
6:20, there were few people who passed quickly after showing their
id or permits. A long line of cars in direction to
Jerusalem.

Qalandya South: a middle line of cars and lorries, standard checks,
those without permits were forced to take the way to Jaba’a. All
the taxis (yellow and white) now park and change passengers at the
west side of the checkpoint where a taxi station reasonably
organized was built.

Qalandya North: Not very crowded. We timed the pedestrians line and
it took 15 minutes. Three soldiers did the checking, a woman
soldier and two older volunteers. Another soldier stood by the side
of the pedestrian line. Despite the closure, people with blue ID or
permits were allowed to pass. One of the volunteers was very polite
and kind with the Palestinians, he spoke to them as human beings,
telling to each of them "good morning" and "have a
nice day". When there was something wrong with their permits
he explained to them what the problem was, e.g. there's nothing
written nor in Hebrew nor in English. This volunteer seemed to be
very sure of himself and experienced and in a way he became the
"leader" of the checkpoint, so the rest of the soldiers
were influenced by his behavior and were quite polite too. We
realized that this man would listen to us, so when we saw a woman
with a baby in her arms at the end of the queue we told one of the
soldiers standing by the side, he went to this volunteer asked
permission and let the woman pass by the side without doing the
queue. When another woman with a little child who waited in the
checkpoint since her id was being checked, for more than 20
minutes, this volunteer asked the soldiers to give the child water
and to hurry with the checking. The only incident occurred when a
man in a car wanted to pass without standing in the line since he
had to take a man to the hospital. He asked the other people in the
line if they would let him pass and they agreed, but one of the
soldiers didn't agreed so he had to stand in the line. There were
some screams, finally the man passed after 10 minutes of waiting.
When we left the checkpoint (Qalandya north) there was a long line
of cars coming from Jaba’a.