Ar-Ram-Qalandiya Saturday June 18, 2005 9:20-11 AMWatchers: Rachel H and Nina M (reporting)Ar-Ram-50 women on their way to a wedding. Upon our arrival we have spotted a big crowd of women with children standing near a small office. The story of women: 50 women with children left Nablus at 5:30. The whole group headed towards Bethlehem for a wedding. They wanted to go simplest , shortest way through Jerusalem. The whole group was detained when trying to bypass Ar-Ram checkpoint at 7:30. Old women were turned back. Young women were forced to sign a document issued by an Israeli police named a “Detention report”. The whole document is written in Hebrew except one sentence stating that nothing was taken from a detainee, which is written in Arabic. Some women did not want to sign this document written in a language they did not understand. Each woman had to enter a little office with two border police inside. In our presence a soldier , who speaks Arabic, appeared and started to translate a Hebrew text, a door of an office which was initially closed now remained opened for women’s request, the procedure was speeded up and the whole group went back to Nablus. They had no energy to go through Hizme’, Abu Dis, Wadi Nar- in spite of their nice dresses they will celebrate nothing today. Qalandiya- a war against salesmenEach army needs an enemy-the present enemy of IDF at Qalandiya checkpoint are salesmen which sell cigarettes, peanuts, underwear, books, fruits. Their turn came after IDF won a battle with previous enemies: transit drivers with yellow plates, taxi drivers with green plates, children who threw stones, children who touched the wall, by passers of this checkpoint. The present enemy is fought as fiercely as the previous one. The rules of a battle are always the same: there is a certain place which cannot be trespassed. A salesman can sale only in a “certain” areas. The definition of a “certain” area changes depending on soldiers mood present at the checkpoint. Some salesmen are afraid of soldiers and are ready to run away when soldiers appear, other say they need to work, to earn 6-12 $ per day, and disregard any restrictions. All salesmen report about soldier’s violence. They speak about kicking, beatings, destroying goods.We speak with a commander in charge Y. We tell him that recent reports from other MachsomWatch observes are very serious and he should read those reports. Y. denies the use of violence against salesmen. He says that only when a salesman first beats a soldier than a force against him is used. After 4 years at checkpoints we are rather skeptical about this explanation.