Ar-Ram, Qalandiya, Wednesday afternoon, 28.3.2007Observers: Hana T. Michal A. (reporting), Natanya translating15.10 Ar-Ram Even before the actual checkpoint we were met by a “mini-checkpiont.” Spikes and lamps were dispersed over the road so as to slow down the traffic which was entering Dachia Albarid. At the side were officials of the tax authority together with border police and they were stopping cars randomly to check if they had debts to the authority. As we arrived a car was confiscated from a man with a blue id. He explained that the car belonged to his brother who owed money. He was furious and said that the car had been taken from me “Only because I am an Arab.”We got to the checkpoint and saw how soldiers were sending a woman in her fifties back to pass through Qalandiya. This was just because she was not a resident of the neighborhood and did not appear on their list. Another absurdity of the occupation. A woman who has to take at least another half an hour to make her way home even though she has a blue id and lives in Jerusalem. We took a Palestinian taxi and traveled together with her to the car passage at Qalandiya.15.50 – There we saw a Palestinian who seemed to be looking for his car. The policemen shouted at him that they had no idea. Later they condescended to explain to him that maybe it had been taken by the unit which deals with stolen cars. They refused to give him the number of this unit and said that to do this he had to phone 100. The Palestinian was boiling with anger and began to shout even more. One of the policeman then hysterically began to shout at him “Don’t you dare come nearer.” Rather strange seeing that he was not armed and the policemen were. He left the place in anger. (It seems that today there is an action to impose the laws. We met “only” the income tax officials and the unit which deals with stolen cars. Maybe at other checkpoints there were other similar actions). A the checkpoint before the checking of cars we heard a soldier asking the driver of a bus (in Hebrew), “Has everyone who has to alight done so?” And truly when the buses arrive all the young men get out while the older people and really small children car stay inside. The Palestinians already know the rules and do so and the bus driver told us that this was so. The soldier in the booth calls to a young boy in one of the cars and asks to see his birth certificate and asks if it is really his and where he was born and then allows him to get back into the car and go on.16.20 – Qalandiya Pedestrian passage. Next to the turnstiles we meet a woman called Manal who comes up to us very upset. She says that the previous week the soldiers sent them from turnstile 1 to 4 and there they found that 4 was closed. They went back and she said that it was obvious that this was just done to harass them and this is not the first time. Her words were filled with anger and insult.Later we met a woman of about 40 who said that she had been at the District Coordinator’s Office since 6 a.m. and now at 16.00 she had only received her permit. She said that it took so long because in the beginning the DCO had been closed and later there were only a few soldiers to deal with all the people. She showed us that she had an appointment at Makassad and said that every time that she had such an appointment (often because she is ill) she has to spend a whole day at the DCO so as to get through that day.We went through the checkpoint where we once again heard “one by one” and took a bus back to Ar-Ram.17.00 – There were still tax officials and border police there who were stopping people. We sat down to drink at Ibrahim. Sad to see the place so empty and to hear him tell us of how successful the place had been in previous days, before 2000. Now he can not make a living and he only comes to open the place so as “not to hang around the house.”