Anata, Ar-Ram, Qalandiya, Sun. 16 Oct. p.m.Observers: Phyllis W, Tamar F, GuestThe feast of Ramadan, together with winter time made us push up the hour of our shift and by 2:00 p.m., we reached the Anata checkpoint. The border police there appeared totally bored and lacking in any motivation until a Palestinian, who had all possible permits necessary, and who crosses the checkpoint every day, fell into their hands. However, today he was told to go back for no apparent reason. The young man resisted and while he argued his case with the commander of the checkpoint, a military minibus arrived and the driver almost ran him over, but he managed to escape at the last minute.Qalandiya Huge crowds continuously crossed the checkpoint. There was enormous dissonance between the people dressed in their holiday best who were rushing to visit their relatives and participate in the meal breaking the fast, the exchange of blessings between the people and their kind greetings toward us and the filth all around and the fences that looked like cattle crossings. We had the letter which Barbara sent to machsomwatch regarding the violent incident last week when a Palestinian woman was hit by a soldier, and we tried to find out more about the happening and indeed, we did find some evidence of it and spoke about it with Amir, the commander of the battalion who was very surprised and promised to check it out and to listen to the testimonity of the witness about the details. There is no room for optimism. We will probably be told that it was an issue of self defence. As it got dark, the checkpoint cleared. When we arrived at the Ar-Ram checkpoint, there were about 20 detainees and the commander of the checkpoint acknowledged that they had been there for an hour and now the process of recording and freeing them began, but the hour of the end of the fast passed. An electrical outage prevented registering them and we started giving the people water from the soldier’s tank until it emptied out. There was not sufficient water there to provide for 20 fasting people. We found two packages of sweets in our bags and several crackers. At that point, we separated and Phyllis ran across to Beit Hanina hoping to get some food. I tried to convince the soldiers that they share their dinner with the Palestinians and I also called Beni with a similar request. Not only was there no interest in our suggestion but at that point, when the light returned, the registration stopped becaused the soldiers got together to eat their supper. Phyllis returned loaded down with food and drinks and the Palestinians ate their meal there. Only when Amos from the DCO arrived, apparently from the many calls that he received from us, did they speed up the process and were the men freed.