Ar-Ram/Qalandiya Tuesday, 5.4.05 PMWatchers: Iris B. – Roni H. – Norah O. (reporting)At 15:15 Iris and myself (Roni was already in Qalandiya with a group of German high-school kids) passed Dahiet-el-Barid (what we call the Ar-Ram checkpoint) and across the road saw a group of 15 detainees standing near the cp. As we were on our way to meet our friend M. who was waiting for us a short distance North of the cp, we decided to take care of the detainees on our way back to the car. M. gave us the various arts and crafts articles which he and his wife prepare, and which we try to sell for him – we stood with him for about half-an-hour, and when we returned to A-Ram cp, the detainees had gone.We arrived at Qalandiya cp around 16:40, into the most incredible traffic jam, the like of which we hadn’t seen for several months. It seemed like the sun had brought out whoever stayed at home during the rainy period – there were streams of pedestrians into all directions. We were also happy to see, that the peddlers have conquered back every free square meter of the Qalandiya roundabout, including the path leading North, from which they had brutally been chased away a few days ago.But, naturally, the less pleasant part of such intense traffic, were the traffic jams and the unusual amount of pedestrians crowding the cp checking lanes. 2 lanes for women and 2 for men were actually activated, but as only one metal-detector was active in the men’s lane, most of the checking was done manually and with appalling slowness. The pressure at the cp lasted for several hours, so that when we returned from our round at the taxi-station area, we found ourselves queuing up together with some 100 women. After 15 minutes we phoned Zidki from the DCO and described the absurd situation to him. He answered that he himself had been at Qalandiya a short while before and had seen the crowded cp. “That’s the way it is during rush-hours”, he maintained. We responded, that this kind of situation is totally unacceptable, upon which he promised to call the cp-commander. Sure enough, the speed was accelerated (though, we can’t be sure, if this was the result of his interference, or just because the flow was getting scarcer in any case), so that the total waiting time was 20 minutes.A problem by which people were preoccupied today: what is going to happen this coming Sunday, when 20’000 fanatic right-wing Israelis will try to enter the Temple Mount – “this is going to mean war”, they all said.Next to the taxis to Ar-Ram, we met the uncle of that 14 years old boy, who, 2 weeks ago, threw stones at the cp, was arrested and then vanished (see report of 2 weeks ago). As it turns out, the boy was fined NIS 1000 and is now detained for 60 days in the military camp Ofer.