Qalandiya, Ar-Ram, Sunday afternoon, 18/09/05 Observers: Tamar F., Netanya G., Phyllis W. (reporting) and a guestAr-Ram When we reached the CP at 3 PM, there were only a few pedestrians and several cars waiting to pass. There were no detainees. Passage was progressing quickly.Qalandiya We arrived at the CP at 15:30. There were peddlers around the margins of the southern square and along the passage. They reported that there had been no special problems with soldiers during the day. On the other hand many complained that there had been a lot of trouble on Saturday. On the basis of their descriptions and our experience of last week, we reached the conclusion that there is a clear correlation between rough treatment of the peddlers and the presence of Sgt. A at the CP.After a month’s absence I received quite a shock on seeing the progress that had been made in closing the area – the ring around Qalandiya is constricting. A continuous stream of pedestrians flowed through the CP with almost no waiting in line. The line of vehicles also flowed uninterrupted. There were no special problems. Anton was the DCO representative.We returned via Ar-Ram at about 6 PM. There was a long line of vehicles (over 20) waiting to pass and several drivers complained that they had been waiting for over an hour. After timing the soldiers checking the vehicles at less than one minute per vehicle, we decided that we had no case for intervention.