A Ram Qalandiya , 10 10 2006 AM Observers: anat T, Nava E (reporting)Advice of the day for a Jerusalem Palestinian with a green i.d. Rent an apartment in Ramallah just in case you won’t be able to return to your home.Anata 7:00 a.m. Free passage of residents, most of whom have blue i.d.’s The checkpoint was confused and crowded. Pedestrians, most of whom were elementary school children walked among the cars and as the taxis slowly made their way via the bottleneck. The commander of the checkpoint, Omer, tried to separate the children from the travelling cars and called to them to gather above the road, away from the traffic to wait for their transport. He even placed a soldier whose sole task was to return children who walked, as was usually the case, freely on the road so that they would cross through the lane for inspection, together with the adults. The children did not understand the new instructions (it was really absurd ‘to worry about the safety of the children’ for a distance of 30 meters of the checkpoint after they had already walked hundreds of meters from their village to the checkpoint when they had trekked all the dangerous, crowded way among the cars). A transit driver who decided to get back on the street while driving in reverse almost ran over two little girls who were behind him and didn’t know which way to run.Also, little children occassionally are afraid to cross through the “security” lane for the adults. A child of about 7 was pushed along forcefully by his brother of about 10 when he cried hysterically and refused to go into the lane out of fear. If there were a humanitarian lane, the children would be able to cross through it without fear and without danger. The commander of the checkpoint said that he did not have the capacity to set up another lane — such instructions and budget must come from above. A boy of 16 walked in the street via a way that was, until yesterday, the “dangerous” route designated for school children. A soldier told him to return and to cross via the checking lane. The boy refused to go back and perhaps, as the commander contended, cursed the soldier. He was brought to the area for detainees. I thought of my 17 year old son and was certain that if he were confronted by a person making such random demands of him, his behavior would have been much more severe than that of that young man. The Palestinian young man, at an age when the hormones are fired up, raised his voice , and he was considered to be a criminal who had to be treated accordingly. The commander of the checkpoint acknowledged that the boy was a pupil with a blue i.d. but refused to say what they would do with him “because there were things about the boy that we didn’t know Ar Ram As we drew near the checkpoint, we saw a soldier with his weapon drawn who was running above the intersection which leads to Neve yaakov. We went into the intersection to see what was happening. There were three old village women who went from Ar Ram in the direction to Jerusalem without getting permits. The soldier stopped, spoke with them for a few minutes and then returned . calmed down. The women continued on their way. At the checkpoint itself, there were 3 or 4 detainees. The soldiers refused to answer our questions. Anat, via body movements and lip reading managed to learn that they had already been detained for an hour, earlier than we were able to get there. We decided to check out the situation on our way back. An additional group of women, wearing traditional holiday guard approached the soldier. He told them to go back , but they did not give up and continued to plead to be allowed to pass. An old women with a cane, barely made her way to the soldier and joined the group. Anat approached the commander of the area whoby chance arrived at the checkpoint. He used his discretion and allowed the women to cross, in spite of the closure.8:30.On the way from Ar Ram to Qalandiya. We checked out the new road that was built from the corner of the wall in the easterly direction. They are paving the road which blocks up the wall from two directions. According to the workers on the road, the road will connect Ar Ram to Neve Yaakov. We could not understand why the road is surrounded by a wall on both sides. Perhaps it is meant to serve the residents of Ar Ram with blue i.d.s who will not have to go through the checkpoint at Ar Ram in order to leave their homes. At Qalandiya, two lanes are open and there was a line at each of them but they did not block traffic. The Qalandia DCL, which was supposed to be open at 8:30 was still closed. We called and were told that there was a delay but that it would open soon.A young women with a baby quickly got a pass A man of 63 prepared a list of names of those in the order that they arrived. His English wife runs the eye clinic at St. John’s hospital where he works in a medical capacity (but not as a doctor). For 35 years, he has lived in Beit Hanina (which is within the Jerusalem municipality), but he has not received a resident’s permit. He must therefore go to the DCL every three months to renew his permit and that of his three children. His English wife does not have this harrassment. He had in his hand a permit which will expire next week and he is anxious to get a new one so that he will not be caught without. When he heard that there was a closure, he asked us not to leave the DCL until he was finished. We waited. A man of 55 who apparently suffered from an illness jumped the line. He was. not even able to raise his arm to push the turnstile when he was pushed into it and he was helped by a woman . The line moved quickly and the people sitting in the hut could smell the odors coming from the bathrooms. The turnstile opened each time for one person alone to enter. Therefore, when a group of people arrived for a common matter, they tried to jam into one turnstile so that they could enter the DCL together. Near us sat an older woman whose i.d. was taken two days ago at Bir Naballah. She was told that it was in Qalandiya. The previous day, she came to Qalandiya but her i.d. was not there. A call to Ofer, p.r. representative at the DCL in Beit El did not clarify where the i.d. was. He wrote down the details and promised to follow up. As of the end of the day, it still was not found and he is still checking. When our friend from Beit Hanina came out of the DC, he had to pass through the inspection lane in order to return home. He again asked us to remain near him. We stayed, although we did not anticipate any problem because, after all, he is a resident in a Jerusalem neighborhood which is written in his i.d. and he also has a permit which has still not expired. To our amazement, hedid not receive a permit to cross. I went into the security passage to find out what the problem was and Anat stayed behind in order to phone. Initially, I thought that the soldiers at the both simply did not understand his fluent English, but that was not the problem. They said that today there is a closure and no one passes. I explained that he is a resident of Beit Hanina, that he has a permit still in effect and that he arrived just this morning in order to get an extention of his permit from the DCL at the checkpoint, that he has no home in Ramallah, and that he must return to his home which is written in his i.d., and that he has a paper indicating that he just now was at the DCL. We affirmed that we accompanied him from the very start and that he did not arrive from Ramallah and that he was only at the checkpoint. Nothing helped. I asked the soldier what he suggested that the man should do since they were not allowing him to return home. The soldier said that that was not his problem. The woman soldier looked at us but said nothing to contradict the soldier who was her senior. Time passed and the crossing closed because we refused to leave without some way of circumventing this beauracracy. The meanwhile, Palestinians crossed via the other passage. The soldier refused to consider this as a humanitarian case and it was a matter of who would give in first. At last, a commander was called to the place, David A. We were removed from the area with the warning and the remark that the women from the previous machsomwatch were really nice, but we weren’t. We were told that we could not hang around the inspection site but only at the hut at the entrance or at the DCL. Next time, David told us, it would be better if we called him directly and did not interfere with those at work at the inspection station. We agreed. We saw how he truly worked to find a way around the bureaucracy, and the rules which constantly change Apparently, even though the man holds a valid permit, it was not in force because of the closure which began with the start of the Succot holiday. Only a permit which was granted after Succot was in effect. Even so, at the bottom of the permit, was written the hours of the day when the permit was in effect. If the permit says that the permit is from 00:00 until 00:00, the man may cross, in spite of the closure. In order to resolve such problems in the future, we must pay attention to the hours written at the bottom of the permit.Ar Ram: On our way back to Jerusalem, we crossed through the checkpoint to see the situation with the detainees. Some of them were still there. According to the soldiers, they were released but caught again when they tried to get through a second time.