Ar-Ram, Qalandiya 25/2/2004 Ayelet E., Sylvia P. (both reporting) Ar-Ram. The checkpoint was open and there was a morning crowd, though it moved at a steady pace. The soldiers behaved quietly and were friendly to us. There were no soldiers down the way, where many civilians bypass the checkpoint. Qalandiya. It seemed as if a new unit of soldiers was stationed today. Only the northern side of the checkpoint was manned.When we arrived the soldiers were involved in a noisy confrontation with a Palestinian who was pretty aggressive and talking with a lot of hand movements. It made the soldiers very nervous. It came out that he was caught together with a young boy while they wanted to bypass the checkpoint. He was on his way to work in the city and the boy – who said that he is 15 years old – was on his way to school. The man had a blue ID that was taken away by the soldiers. The boy had no documents.The soldiers asked both of them to wait on the side. Suddenly the boy’s aunt arrived from our side with a blue ID and implored for the boy to be allowed to pass. The captain – Asaf – said that they are checking the IDs, and it will take from 5 minutes to 1 hour. When we asked, it was already half an hour. We called the DCO and asked if things may be done more quickly. They said they would check. We called them several times to follow up, and they were still checking.Ayelet tried to take pictures and they didn’t let her do it and we gave up. When we were crossing to the other side to see what was going on there, they stopped us. But some soldier said it is OK, and they left us alone.A Jordanian teacher, who looked 50 years old or so, was not allowed to pass even though he crossed there every day to and from work. He works in a school in Bir Nabala. He insisted, and the soldiers sent him back to Ramallah. He stood close to the checkpoint and didn’t go away. The soldiers didn’t let him pass because his identification was expired. He claimed that a few minutes ago a female teacher, in exactly the same situation like him, had been allowed to pass. He told us that he passes the checkpoint everyday. He has a teacher ID. We gave him a card of the Moked (Center for the Defense of the Individual). We also called the DCO again, and suddenly Didi, an officer from the DCO, arrived, recognized the Jordanian teacher and allowed him to cross. Classical circumstances from the Israeli occupation: the teacher is married to a Palestinian woman, has 7 children and lives in the other side of the checkpoint. He has a Jordanian passport out of date and is not granted a permit or a visa or anything, so they have him in their hands. Generally, he is allowed to pass. But they can harass him whenever they want, and perhaps some day he will get tired and leave with all his family to Jordan…When we were already at the end of our shift and the checkpoint was almost empty of people, two soldiers came with 10-12 males who were caught attempting to bypass the checkpoint. Didi said he could not tell us how long they would be detained.The man that was caught at the beginning was forced to join them. The boy disappeared. Eventually he crossed with his aunt though neither one of us saw when, how and why, as we were busy watching other things. We couldn’t stay anymore, and we left. On our way back we crossed together with the Palestinian cars, and the soldier who checked our IDs said that we could cross through the other line. We answered that it is morally incorrect, and he asked why. We explained that it is a kind of racism. He made a sign of disgust and sent us away.