Ar-ram, Qalandiya, 2.1.2006, Monday afternoon Watchers and reports: Noah A-Y. Lizi S.Summary:“People come from Russia and America and they live in my land…and I? I am forbidden.” (Words of a man from Qalandiya who has been prevented for a long time from seeing his wife and children who lives in Jerusalem. “)I was fired for the third time because I am late. At the old checkpoint half an hour, here two hours.” (He has 5 children and no livelihood. Each morning he gets up earlier and earlier but it is no use. He is still late for work.)And it makes one think, what does a man do so his children do not have to be hungry? What does a man do who cannot even see his children?A possible answer: everything!!!Ar-RamA long queue of cars but no special delays. The pedestrian crossing is almost empty. We move on.QalandiyaMany taxis. It is amazing to see how they manage to drive on the small space of the road. Some goods on display on top of the cement blocks blocking the road and around a few vendors with wheel barrows and makeshift stalls.At the exit a woman waits already over an hour for her father who is still in the queue on his way to her. She tells us that her daughter had an operation for her breathing and she wants to take her for a follow-up checkup but she cannot do so because she has a green ID. We took her details and will phone her so as to tell her how to turn to the DCO. The women pass relatively quickly but the men take a long time and most of them are stripped. It looks forever. No wonder people get fired for being late to work. If a line of 20 men takes over an hour to cross, what happens in the morning when there are hundreds of men going to their jobs? And what happens if “God forbid” a soldier checks them “very efficiently.” Then they can only dream of making a living. Cars take two hours to cross. And here there is something strange. Trucks cross and are hardly checked but private cars are checked thoroughly, both baggage and documents. And then we learned something else: If you have a vehicle loaded with goods and an Israeli registration plate you cannot cross here. Why? A soldier is trying to show us how the Israeli authorities take the Israeli people into consideration: “They have to go through Betuniya…it was built especially for that.” The man has to travel many hours un order to get to the Jordan valley and from there to his home near Afula, because they are making things easier for him!! Halleluiah!Back to the welcoming sign and we go through the turnstiles and out. To sum up” The new terminal takes an even longer time for people to pass, no efficiency and the despair is the same.People who have worked all their lives in Israel lose their jobs. They get up early; stand for hours at the checkpoint but here that is a minor matter. The soldiers have loudspeakers, cameras, masks, and armoured rooms. People here perform acrobatics. But never mind… they are only Arabs.