Qalandiya, Tuesday, 25.4.06, PMObservers: Snait G., Norah O., Roni H. (reporting)Reconnaissance tour We wanted to find out how a person who lives in Bir Naballah and works in Jerusalem, Beit Hanina, can get to work when the seperation wall encloses Bir Naballah and separates it from Ar-Ram and Dahia. We asked a friend, resident of Bir Naballah, to drive us through this route in his car and to let us participate in this “experience” – and an “experience” it is! We will describe this journey starting from Bir Naballah. The main road of Bir Naballah has been some weeks ago bustling with life and traffic, but is now completely deserted (“we can play football on it”). It has become a dead end, with a roadblock (rocks and concrete) obstructing it to the east from small roads leading to Dahia and Beit Hanina. According to the Supreme Court decision on Pessah eve, the last opening in the wall, connecting Bir Naballah and Ar-Ram and Dahia, has been ultimately closed. Standing at the roadblock one can see Beit Hanina, which has been a 5 minutes drive away – and is now a one hour drive away! An appeal by the residents of Bir Naballah to the Supreme court is pending and the hearing will be on May 7th. But as we know……… From the main road southward a fence is being built, which will separate Bir Naballah from Atarot as well. Inbetween the fence and the wall is a small Bedouin village, which will become a lonely island once the fence will be completed. From Bir Naballah we turn north and drive through Al Judeira on a newly upgraded road (for the upgrading of this road many residents of Al Judeira have had to pay with much of their land). This road is called by the army “Texture of Life Road” מרקם החיים. We cross under road 443 in a tunnel and come out opposite Qalandiya village, the old part of Qalandiya. We turn west and after 2km north and drive through the village of Rafath. Here the good road comes to an end and there are more potholes that there is a road. These roads are indescribable. One has to see to believe. We continue to drive north and find ourselves in an outskirt of Ramallah, Umisherae. Here we take several turns and loose our orientation until we hit the Qalandiya – Ramallah road. We go south and eventually arrive at Qalandiya checkpoint . We take the bypass of the checkpoint and turn west on the Ja’aba – Ar-Ram road, then go south along the eastern road of the wall. Since our driver has a Jerusalem ID he is allowed to cross the Ar-Ram checkpoint, but he is, of course, not exempted from waiting in the line. This can take from a couple of minutes to one hour or more. At last he has arrived in Beit Hanina, where he works! The detour took us one hour, and this with a private car. If you take sevice taxis you might have to change in Ramallah and you can add another fifteen minutes at least.The army is very pleased with this “solution”, which has been specially created for the residents of the West Bank, who can now move without being checked from Ar-Ram to Bir Naballah or to Ramallah. Congratulations! At the Neveh Yakob junction we meet two of “Aya’s children” who tell us that three of their cousins have been taken to the police station and their merchandise has been confiscated.