Ar-Ram/Qalandiya-Tuesday, 10.1.06 PMWatchers: Roni H. – Norah O. (reporting)Id El-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) – the Israeli Security Forces’ contribution to the Muslim holiday is an increased presence of their forces, as it is a good opportunity to catch people red-handed , as they return from visiting their relatives in the Jerusalem area during the holiday. Consequently, more detainees were spotted today than on a regular day. – A very happy Id to all!15:00 Ar-RamImmediately after the Neve Ya’akov junction, we notice 4 border police people and 2 policemen+van checking the Northbound traffic. Right now, they are checking 2 transit vans. The policeman enters the first transit van to check the passengers’ ids. One Palestinian is ordered to leave the van. Just before we arrived, the brother of the driver has been taken off the other van. He had the nerve to mention to the BP, that it wasn’t that great of him, to have stopped the van at the very last second (had the driver not paid attention to the BP and driven on, he would have been accused of trying to escape). All the passengers in this transit van were on their way to a family visit, like most of the people we see on the road, dressed in their Sunday’s best.The 2 detainees are taken to the checkpoint, where they join seven other detainees accused of illegal sojourn in Jerusalem, and who have been waiting in the shed for approx. 50 minutes. Most of them would be release within an hour, after having signed those notorious incriminating forms.15:20 – Two Palestinian journalists arrive at the cp by car. Both of them hold an Israeli Press card issued by the Israeli Government Press Bureau. Both are asked to leave their car and wait for the police to arrive. They are stunned (and so are we) and tell us, that, being journalists, they cross the cp almost daily and without problems. The woman holds a blue (Israeli) id, the man a Palestinian one. We call I. at the IDF Spokesperson Office who refers us to S. in charge of police matters at the ‘Jerusalem Envelope’ unit. 40 minutes later, the 2 arrested journalists are ordered to follow a BP jeep to the police station (in Attarot, as we find out later). We just about manage to write down the cellular phone nr. of the lady-journalist. At 18:00, we finally manage to get through to her.She tells us, that they have just been released, after a complaint against her has been filed. She is accused of having given a ride in her car to an ‘illegal alien’ in the Jerusalem area – the punishment is as usual in cases like this: in addition to a hefty fine, she won’t be allowed to drive her car for a month. She intends to appeal at court, and we shall inquire, what can be done to help her, as he was actually caught before the checkpoint, on a very short strip of the road between the Eastern part of the Separation Wall and the line leading to the cp. Harassment for the sake of harassment? it seems like it.16:00 – By now, 50 cars are waiting in the Southbound line before the cp. We leave and continue to Qalandiya.16:30 – QalandiyaOnly very few peddlers at what used to be the Qalandiya roundabout.The “terminal”: a surprisingly small number of pedestrians – the crossing through the turnstiles is swift. 2 soldiers and Haim from the DCO (hostile as usual) are operating the turnstiles at remote control from the secure glass booth – the number of soldiers equals the number of turnstiles being active. The soldier (a woman) calls out to us over the loudspeakers: you are not allowed to be here! We ignore her and stroll over to the car-checking area. As always, the lines are long. The fact, that cars are being checked at in 4 lanes does not reduce the waiting time in a significant way. One of the soldiers asks us to leave the car lane. He is responsible for our security, he says. We might get run over by a car. We are going to hear this mantra about the army being responsible for our personal security over and over again today.After 17:00 the pressure of pedestrians going through the turnstiles has increased. And as there is only the one woman-soldier left in the booth now, only one single turnstile is being operated. When we approach the turnstile to pass ourselves, the soldier blocks it. As Palestinians are beginning to line up behind us, we move back, and the red light changes again to green. We call E. the Brigade Commander’s M. E.’s assistant. Yes, she will look into the matter, she promises. After a while, the soldier girl informs us (through the loudspeakers), that we have to wait for ‘body guards’ to lead us out. We wait and wait, but nothing happens. A few more phone calls to Edelstein’s office. Half-an-hour later, we get hold of E. again: indeed, those instructions were given by the Brigade Commander, and yes, they are in charge of our personal security and, therefore, they will send us guards to protect us. We ask her to tell the Brigade Commander, that this continuous harassment of MW women at the checkpoint, by which they try to rid themselves of us, is totally unacceptable. We shall continue to come and watch.At 18:00 two armed soldiers show up to secure the exit of the two gracious ladies (us) from the compound, while preventing Palestinians to come near us. A very bad joke indeed!