Ar-Ram, Qalandiya 07.06.05 a.m. Observers: Tova S, Noa E, Hannah B, Sara A (reporting)Ar-RamThere were four detainees. The security service caught them in the area of the checkpoint and they were brought in by a border police jeep. Three were waiting a half hour and the fourth, two hours. They were waiting for the officer who took their i.d.’s to return them and to sign that they would not again enter the area of Jerusalem. While we were speaking with them, a young boy arrived with a bandaged hand. He had been involved in an accident and was taken to hospital. His i.d. was still in the car. He said that he was under arrest overnight in Beit Shemesh and all his details are in the computer. And, when one’s details appear in the computer, explained Anat who was in charge at the checkpoint, you are immediately suspect. “Aha, you are a big criminal?” “No, just a little thief so that I can manage to eat — not to have a good time,” he replied. Because the computer did not specify the hours of his house arrest, he was detained. He called home and asked that they bring him the forms permitting him to be out during the day. He asked to speed things up because of the pain in his hand. We left for Qalandiya, and when we returned after three hours, the boy was still there. At the moment, he is under arrest and is still waiting for the police to come for him. The soldiers were not prepared to tell us the reason for his arrest and would not allow us to speak with him. Qalandiya The work on the terminal continues and reaches up to the checkpoint itself so that the place is very crowded and the noise of the machines breaks one’s ear drums, to say nothing of the shards of stone that fly around the machine that breaks them. I had still not recovered from the fact that they caused a hill to disappear for the construction of that monstrosity. We were told that the design and planning — the height of creativity of the air transit authority – includes attractive colors. The checkpoint was full of people. A soldier requests the i.d.’s of all those going north. “Generally, we don’t check those going north, but sometimes there are exceptions,” he explains. Yochai, commander of the checkpoint asked if we were planning to go north through the turnstiles. We answed: “Perhaps.” “You are forbidden to do so. Don’t start up that argument again”. He was concerned about our security.A young woman was sitting inside the checkpoint. She was detained there for an hour. She wanted to cross the checkpoint together with her family. They live in Jerusalem and have American passports. Everyone was allowed to cross except for her because they said her visa was forged. When we left the place, her family continued to Jerusalem and she returned to Ramallah.A young man with a blue i.d. was taken, for some unknown reason, to the building on the east of the checkpoint. Dani, from the DCO said that he could not tell us why because it was secret. After ten minutes, a soldier emerged from there with a very long kitchen knife. We could not get any details about this.At some point, we went north and Yochai ran after us and blocked our way. We demanded to pass. This is Jerusalem. He called the authority of the Jerusalem envelope and after a while, got down from his high house and allowed us to cross, “but only to the shop — until the point where we can have eye contact!” While we were waiting for permission to cross, the volunteer yelled after us “I am a major in the reserves and I say to you that you are an embarrassment and you have been destroying this country for more than thirty years.”On our way back, we were scolded for crossing to the regular lane and our i.d.’s were taken from us and kept for ten minutes after they were checked by the computer. We were asked that from now on, we cross via the side lane because “you are endangering our soldiers” the officer explained. Really now!