Ar-Ram, Qalandiya – Tuesday 09.05.06 AMObservers: Rony P., Mor B. (reporting)Translation: Netta S.7:20 Ar-RamThere are 20 cars waiting in line, a lot of children on their way to school. The children’s check and the vehicles’ check are being done on the same lane and by the same soldier (hoping no one will be hit by a car?) the children’s check is pretty fast.The junction at the end of the street of Ar-Ram checkpoint (where the wall begins) – there is a huge chaos. A military Jeep is stuck in the junction and it causes a lot of crowdedness it physically blocks the passage and causes a lot of chaos, in addition to the chaos caused by the basic conditions of this place that can’t function as a junction. As a result of that there is a huge traffic jam from Ar-Ram’s and Jerusalem’s directions. It seems that the soldiers are only waiting for a chance to scream at people, and indeed suddenly they step out off the jeep and start shouting with no reason on one of the guys who tried to make some order in the vehicles’ chaotic movement. 7:30 QalandiyaThe vehicles’ lane is crowded. There are 100 people crowded together in the pedestrian checkpoint in front of the first carousels, among them a lot of young boys on their way to school. The checks are very slow and they don’t open the first carousels until the lanes are empty. We call ophir and describe him the situation and ask him to take care of it, he promises to check, but nothing changes. We try to talk to the soldier in the main room, but she doesn’t do anything. We get the same response from the vehicle checkpoint commander:” we give more permits, so there are more people and longer lines”. We must point out that only 2 sometimes 3 lanes are open in the pedestrian checkpoint. We try to call Ophir again, but there’s no answer. The crowdedness creates chaos, tension and lack of patience among everyone. At the moment a side door is being opened for a person with special permit, everyone is trying to squeeze in, in contradiction to the soldier’s instructions. The soldiers get mad at the people and disparage at them.8:15We leave. We decide to go back as we came, in a taxi to Ar-Ram from the eastern side of the wall, because the line is still very long. We don’t know why ones with Israeli residency don’t pass Qalandiya checkpoint, like we did. 8:30We speak with the soldiers in the checkpoint and they tell us that Palestine Authority residents with a passage permit, aren’t allowed to go through the junction- this checkpoint, they can go through only in Qalandiya. The soldiers said: We are trying to “get them used to it”.Ar-RamThere is still a line of 20 cars, not a lot of pedestrians.