Ar-Ram, Qalandiya 20/6/2004 AMWatchers:Dalia R, Marit T, Chana A (reporting)Sho’afat Camp: 6.40. There are more than ten detainees. At least in part they are young men who were caught in Jerusalem at midnight, were interrogated during the night and let free at 6 AM. Then, on their return home, they were caught again and detained. Not much we could do, but wonder why they had to sneak around the roadblocks and were not taken home by the BP so they wouldn’t take up everyone’s time again (and how about their being a security threat once again?) A middle-aged woman, with a swollen foot, on her way to the Mukassad hospital from her home in Hebron, was held up. The BP policewoman disdainingly told us she could hold her up indefinitely. We argued that point with her, but that’s not the point. We feel that the Women in Green have something to do with it. We called Dalia Bassa and told her about the woman from Hebron. She promised to help.Qalandiya:7.15. Marit drives around and into Ar-Ram to reach the parking area above the road. We have a good view from here and see all is quiet except for the blue police generously dealing out fines to drivers for all sorts of infringements, especially driving without belts. We go down the stairs and hear that there is a new unit in place since this morning and they are “beseder”. The unit is mostly MP and young and they opened the border early (before 6AM), a welcome fact. No detainees, no complaints. We walk around to see if we can do something, but since there isn’t. We decide to return to Sho’afat through the Ar- Ram roadblock. We reach the CP at Ar-Ram at 8:30 and are trapped there until after 10:00 with only ten cars in front of us. During the wait, Dalia, Marit and Chana all take turns talking to the soldier manning the control of documents without any result. He not only works alone (his colleagues are in the booth and don’t care), he also works slowly, slowly. We also call: Benzi and Amitai. Amitai says he will try to help when we first call, then he says there is not enough manpower to help when we call for the second time, then he gets angry when we call three and four times. An hour and 45 minutes is a long wait. We also call Safadi, who is nice but evidently not able to change the situation either. When we get through the line at 10:15, we are exhausted and return home. All those passing this CP have blue ID cards which are scrupulously perused and whose vital (I assume) information is jotted down on the appropriate line. Our ID’s are no exception and it takes more than 5 minutes for 3 ID’s just for us. Some soldiers just write slowly! It’s a pure case of harassment.