Ar-Ram, Bir Nabala, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Sun 23.3.08, Afternoon

Qalandiya ,
Bir Nabala
15:50
A-Ram CP: Impressive presence of soldiers and civilian security
personnel. Absence of Palestinians.

16:09
Qalandiya: About 50 people were waiting before the northern
carousel and we could see through the fence that lines in the two interior
passageways that were operating were full. We had just arrived
and begun to sniff out what was happening when suddenly another passageway
was opened and the whole crowd at the northern entrance flowed into
the CP.
Examining the notices pasted on the CP walls we found one announcing
the opening of a post office in Kufr Aqeb. (As I wrote this down
in my notebook, a suspicious soldier shouted at me over the PA system:
"What are you writing?")

16:14: Approximately 25
people were waiting in each of the CP lines. The carousels were
allowing three people at a time to enter the examination area.
No one else was allowed to enter until the first three had left.
It took an average of 3 minutes to check the papers of each threesome.
We joined the lines and passed through the CP to get to the vehicle
checkpoint. Traffic was moving as usual with no particular disruptions.
From afar we could that there was a long line of cars at Atarot CP,
but the line more or less disappeared within 10 minutes.

16:40: Returning to the
pedestrian passages, we found that only two were operating and that
the northern entrance was once again closed. We clocked the waiting
time before the northern entrance at 10 minutes with an additional ten
minutes wait to enter Passageway No.1, for a total waiting time of ca.
20 minutes in the CP. But just about then, the computer in Passageway
No. 2 fell and the people in line continued to wait about 30 minutes
in the heat and crowded conditions without receiving any explanation
for the delay. (Why wasn't the PA system used to tell them?)
After several phone calls to the "Humanitarian Hotline" (where
we were told that that they weren't interested, because of the closure
which precluded passage of Palestinians holding green P.A. ID cards,
and wouldn't get involved for those holding blue Israeli ID cards) and
to CP headquarters, a third line was opened and then the computer in
Passageway No. 4 revived, so three lines were operating.

In general, the closure appeared to be
enforced selectively because I myself saw people with green ID cards
and permits allowed to pass. A man who had not been allowed through
approached me. He claimed that he had been allowed through the
CP in the morning and only now in the afternoon had been denied entry.
He complained that the soldiers generally treated Palestinians in an
insulting manner, especially so when the soldiers were female.

18:00: Bir Nabala:
A long line of 29 vehicles was waiting. Our guest and I got out
of the car and walked down the line counting. We stationed ourselves
opposite the soldiers. The line began to move a bit faster.
We discovered that people whose ID cards stated their place of residence
as Hebron and Nablus were not being allowed to enter Bir Nabala.
(Tamar quoted one CP soldier describing the above as "a dumb order":
everyone knows that many people from Hebron and Nablus have moved into
Bir Nabala where rents have dropped dramatically because the original
residents abandoned the town after it was encircled by the Wall.)
Drivers on their way to Ramallah complained to us that lines at this
CP are generally much longer and that conditions only improved when
observers from MachsomWatch were present. There were 25 vehicles
waiting in line when we left.

17:20: Lil: There
were no lines and traffic was moving unimpeded.

19:43: Hizmeh: A Red
Crescent Ambulance had been waiting 40 minutes to take a woman from
Hizmeh village to give birth in Mukassad Hospital in Jerusalem.
Dalia Bassa (the IDF officer coordinating such problems) said that the
woman didn't have a permit. It turned out that the woman (mother
of two with contractions every three minutes whose amniotic sack had
broken), lying in her husband's car not 10 meters from the ambulance,
was not allowed to transfer to the ambulance in spite of the fact that
the three crew members swore that they had the skills and the equipment
necessary to deliver the baby safely in their vehicle. We began
making telephone calls and that seemed to do the trick – the woman
was shortly allowed to transfer to the ambulance. But then Yael
S. (MW coordinator for hospitalization) told us that the woman had requested
permission a week ago to give birth in Jerusalem and had been told that
the "Shabak" (Israel's General Security Forces) had refused
permission and that, since there were no medical complications, she
would have to give birth at one of the hospitals in Ramallah (a 30-40
minute drive over bumpy roads from her home). (Yael suggested
that we get the husband's version of the story but we failed to do so.)
In spite of the fact that the ambulance crew recommended that the husband
transfer his wife to the Ramallah hospital in a Palestinian ambulance,
in view of the practical certainty that she would give birth en route,
he refused to do so and decided to take her to Ramallah in his own car.