Anata, Ar-Ram, Qalandiya 08.05.05 a.m. Observers: Mor B., Tamar A (reporting)Watch from 6:55 to 10:20Everything was according to the law, but we are speaking of the law of occupation and that is very disheartening and disconcerting. 6:55 Anata checkpoint. There were two lanes for vehicles and each one had 6 or 7 cars. The number of pedestrians was relatively small. The passengers of 3 minibuses crossed the checkpoint on foot and waited for the drivers of the minibuses to be released which took a few minutes. Near the passageway for pedestrians, borderpolice recorded, but we were not able to see what they were writing. There were no detainees and people were circumventing the checkpoint via the path above the hill without any problems. So we thought. But when we were leaving, we saw a jeep standing behind the traffic light and border police were stopping those who crosses. They had taken the i.d.’s from 10 of them and sent them to the checkpoint.7:15 Flying checkpoint on the road between Shuafat and French Hill. The police were stopping minibuses on their way from Jerusalem to Ar-Ram and Qalandiya, collecting all the i.d.’s (most of them blue), checking them, and returning them. It took 5 to 10 minutes. From time to time, they demanded to see the i.d.’s of pedestrians who were going toward French Hill. Mor was filming and that apparently pleased the policemen. They stopped their checking for a few minutes and spoke with us. They were surprised that we have time for our volunteer activities and suggested that we do something more productive, for example, to work with Magen David Adom to save lives. They wanted to convince us how evil the Palestinians are, and that we would see this if, like them, we spent 8 to 12 hours at the checkpoint. If we neared their villages, we would be pelted by stones. They said all this in a friendly tone.7:42 Ar-Ram checkpoint. There was a line of about 10 vehicles. Everyone going in the direction of Ar-Ram was checked. At the checkpoint, there were 15 detainees. Also a student on his way to Ar-Ram was detained. The border police gave him preferential treatment and put him right into the container where the detainees are questioned and made to fill out forms. After 10 minutes, he was released and went on his way. A man with a cane who wished to cross the checkpoint to see a doctor lacked the necessary permits. The man would not give up. The police spoke with him quietly, gave him a glass of water, but in the end, he had to return to Ar-Ram. At 8:00, the small group of detainees was released and they returned to Ar-Ram. The police were not rude, did not shout or humiliate and gave instructions politely. But that was just for appearance’s sake. Nothing progressed. One of the police sat with a number of i.d.’s and forms and appeared to be writing something but there were no results. During 45 minutes, almost none of the detainees were released. The detainees were there illegally together with the driver who transported them. They were not allowed to speak with one another. The driver was not willing to accept the verdict and two policemen grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him to the other side of the checkpoint. For a moment, it appeared that the tension would explode, but then the police left the driver alone. He continued to complain in a loud voice about what was being done to him. All the other detainees didn’t say a word. The driver refused to sign the form that was written in Hebrew and was not willing to listen to an oral translation into Arabic. The policeman wrote on the form. “Refuses to sign”. Finally, the driver was put into a border police jeep. His passenger got into a car of the border police and both of the vehicles left the area in the driection of Ar-Ram. The policement disregarded us the whole time, and we asked when the detainees would be released. The commander said, in his quiet voice, that they were dealing with them quickly. They were checking each one and having them sign on a form saying that they can be held for 3 hours. We called Tzidki at the DCO and he promised to check the matter. 15 minutes later, during which no one was freed, we called again and Tzidki said that he asked them to speed things up but that is all that he can do. We tried to get help from Hannah Barag, hoping that perhaps she could do something, but she said that they have the right to hold them for 3 hours. And if they want to do that, there is not much to do, but she would try to convince their commander to intervene. We hoped that at least they would not hold them for more than 3 hours and continued on to Qalandiya.9:00 Qalandiya checkpoint. Here too we found 11 detainees. There were at least 2 with blue i.d.’s and one was already waiting an hour and a half. Two were freed by getting a call to go to Camp Ofer. We asked the commander why the men were detained. He said that the men were between 20 and 50 and because all of them were required to go to Camp Ofer, there was an effort to recruit them to be collaborators. The commander tried to comfort us. They won’t have to wait long. This is a routine matter and it’s better than previously when they were taken directly to Camp Ofer.At the checkpoint, there was a line of 5 vehicles. Also 3 ambulances were trying to get to Ramallah and were checked for about 2 minutes each. The line for women and children moved quickly — in the line for men, there were about 30 men. We went to the other side of the checkpoint and when we returned, most of the detainees had been freed, among them, the man who had been waiting for an hour and a half. Meanwhile, there were 12 new detainees. Every 10 to 15 minutes, several are released with a request to go to Camp Ofer.10:05 Ar-Ram. No more detainees. It took us 15 minutes to cross through the checkpoint.