Ar-Ram, Qalandiya 15.1.04 Rama Y., Valeria, S., Mili M. (reporter) Ar-Ram Traffic moves fluently. Not many people; apparently school holidays are still on. No particular incidents, except for the fact that pedestrians have to stand behind a police fence and wait till they are summoned by the soldier for checkup one by one. Qalandiya Two flags fly above the CP. The Israeli and the flag of regiment which is stationed now at the CP. The soldiers carry strong conviction about their mission, they do their job efficiently with some leniency, although not many exceptions were needed. The traffic was slow here too. Rama took pictures of the garbage, and was told that it was a closed military zone. The soldiers did not carry the argument too far. The scene was quite different for the vehicles. There were three buses of pilgrims to Mecca and checkup was very slow. Only three soldiers did it. There were seven more soldiers at the passage for the pedestrians. When asked to send more soldiers to help with checking the buses we were told by the sodiers that they also wished that there were more soldiers. There was really no need for this slow down because as soon as the buses were checked the traffic went quite smoothly. Just a waist of about 40 minutes for the people waiting in the cars. We were told that we were not allowed to stand by the vehicles, only by the passage for the pedestrians. Any basis for that?