Ar-Ram/Qalandiya Tuesday,7.6.05 PM Watchers: Roni H. – Iris B. – Norah O. (reporting)15:50 – Ar-RamThe traffic heading to Ramallah is being checked today – both cars and pedestrians.We find 5 detainees at the CP – 4 of which have just been taken off a bus going north. As usual, those are men who have come back from a day’s work in Jerusalem. As they were caught just a couple of minutes before we got there, we still have no grounds to complain at the DCO, and thus decide to continue to Qalandiya, not before we write down the phone # of 2 of the detainees, so we can get an update of what happens to them. An hour later, one of them tells us, that all but him have been released. Half an hour later, just as I dial his number again, the man, who lives in Ramallah, passes Qalandiya checkpoint on his way home. He tells us, that he has been caught several times before, each time signing those incriminating forms. Therefore, he is now being denied the magnetic card. We refer him to one of our women (Haya O.), who handles those problems.16:15 – QalandiyaWell, what do you know: the ‘magnificent new terminal’ is almost finished – the Palestinians call it cynically “a 5 star checkpoint”. It even has a parking lot, which, for the time being, is being used by the guards. And talking of the security guards (civilians), they move around freely in the “good old CP” compound, with a gun on their shoulders, of course.At 16:30 3 soldiers block the pedestrians’ passage to the North and start checking IDs of all the young men passing (probably looking for East Jerusalemites, who now are forbidden to enter Ramallah!). The Palestinians queue-up automatically, which means that this kind of checking has become standard procedure to them.The random checking stops at 17:15.We see, that the letter from the Women in blue-and-white (inviting the soldiers to be hostile towards us!), is still glued to the water tank near the CP. We call Zidki from the Jerusalem Envelope DCO, who promises to look into the matter and have the letter removed.The number of peddlers around the CP has considerably decreased since the intimidation actions. There are a few, also along the path leading north. One young peddler approaches us and reports that soldiers have just confiscated his ID, because he disregarded their order to remove his stand from the path. We then inform the soldiers, that ID-confiscation as a punishment is against the law. They claim, that they are just running a routine check of the ID on the computer (although they know the man very well). It seems, though, that this time our intervention helped, as they return the ID to the young man after 10 minutes.When we return from our little round in the northern area around the taxi station, we remember the order given by several CP commanders, that we are to use the outer lane for checking, and not mix with the Palestinians – and we act accordingly. But immediately, today’s CP-commander Yochai comes running along. He has heard of no such order and moves us to the general checking lanes. Each commander and his own rules – so: Qalandiya teams, check which it is to be on the day you are there, so you won’t commit some fatal mistakes!We leave at 19:00