Ar-Ram – Qalandiya, Tuesday 7.3.06, PM Irit S., Roni H. (reporting)Guest: photographer Melany “Today two young men were arrested while trying to pass through the Qalandiya crossing. The soldiers searched them and claimed they possed knives and bullets. The Israeli forces strengthen their measures at the crossing after the arrest” So far the news. The reality on the ground was accordingly.”Hot alerts” at Ar-Ram – 5 Palestinians were detained, they were taken down a bus coming from Jerusalem without a permit. The infamous forms were filled out and after this procedure they were released. On our way back 3 Palestinians were detained and released after filling out the forms. Qalandiya – At 15:30 3 jeeps with soldiers pulled up at the bottom of the stairs leading to Ar-Ram neighborhood and 6 soldiers jumped out of them, ran up the stairs with drawn and pointed guns obviously looking for some persons. We went after them and realized that 6 other soldiers were already up there. Together they were desperately looking out for some one, runnig around with drawn guns. Neither the taxi drivers nor the passers by payed any attention to them and when we asked what the soldiers were looking for, they said they do not know, but this kind of scenes were rather frequent here! At 16:00 the soldiers went back to their jeeps without having found what they were looking for. We saw several soldiers with pointed guns lined up on the path leading to the new checkpoint. We realized that the building activities on the premises have advanced rapidly and that five booths one next to the other were erected that looked like paying station on superhighways. Will this be the new passage for the cars?On the northern side hundreds of men were waiting at the first turnstiles and impatiently pressing against them. We heard that after the arrest the checkpoint has been closed for a while and a big crowd has accumulated. Now the waiting time was one and a half hour and we heard the usual incomprehensible shouting through the loudspeakers. The car lines from both directions seemed endless. From time to time the soldiers stopped checking and everything became motionless. More and more peddlers have installed their tables on the path from the taxis to the checking area and this is the only enjoyable sign of “life’s going on” in this dreary checkpoint landscape. On our way back southwards we had to queue up. Nothing is moving. All of a sudden a big surge forward. The “humanitarian” door has been opened (we could not make out for whom) and all the men in the line rushed through it. The woman soldier operating the turnstiles was terribly alarmed and tried to close the door from her operating booth. In vain. At least 50 men managed to get through before the door could be closed. We had to wait for another 20 minutes until the women’s queue was opened again. At the next rows of turnstiles big crowds have gathered and we had to wait again. In front of us one woman was apprehended without an ID and immediately the turnstile was locked. After a long discussion the woman was ready to go back. The voice of a soldier sounded mockingly “who wants to pass?” while the turnstile was still locked. And when he suddenly opened it he speeded us up, shouting “faster, faster, go through faster” so that two of us got trapped in one turnstile. One of the women cried in humiliation. Games soldiers play! An elderly women asked us, why her entire family was “dispersed” over 3 different lines: she in the women’s line, her husband in the men’s line and her son with a baby in a third line. She was angry and felt at a loss. So did we. We met the new team of the Ecomenical Accompaniment volunteers and talked about ways of cooperation.Another day of collective punishment!