Anata, Qalandiya, Thursday, 26/8/2004, AMObservers: Ruth E., Ramah Y. (reporting), 5 guestsAnata. When we arrived at around 6:30, things atAnata were as usual: The same long vehicle line asalways, while pedestrians were going through withalmost no hindrance. And then, about 15 minutes later,a police patrol car arrived. Immediately, the BPsoldiers started to collect IDs (blue all of them, asfar as we could see) from pedestrians – all young men– and brought them over to the police car forchecking. Within minutes, there was a big crowd ofdetainees that grew by the second. People weredesperate to get to work, and the anger andfrustration were great. A youngster of 17-18 confronted the soldiers and wasdragged into the patrol car. His ID was returned tohim after some 30 minutes, and he was free to go. Agroup of about 8-10 men just left their IDs behind,got on a transit and went on in the direction ofJerusalem. At a certain point, the number of detaineesamounted to 50. When the police car left at about7:45, there were about a dozen detainees. By then,the BPs started to detain cars and their passengers,and collected their IDs for checking. Two cars withIsraeli Arabs waited about 15 minutes for their IDs tobe returned to them. Qalandiya. And yet another innovation in Qalandiya:Just when we arrived, turning doors were put in place,and no pedestrians were let through while this wasdone. The crowd grew angry, so what! There’s a turningdoor for each lane. The first to open, while we werethere, was the one at the “humanitarian” lane (for women,children, the elderly etc.) – the men had to goon waiting for “their” door to be installed. So what.Anyhow, we could see how this Israeli miracle works: Aboy of ten arrived, pushing a pram, and passed withgreat difficulty; an old woman carrying on her head abig basket full of figs and holding in her hand aplastic bag — the same; and so on and so forth. Andwhat will happen when schools open and children withschool bags will have to pass through those impossibledoors? And who is the inventor of all those “securitysolutions”? And, yes, how much does it cost?