Qalandiya, Ar Ram27.02.04 Nava E, Rahel A It was quiet in Ar Ram. Pedestrians were not detained and vehicles passed in three lanes within 4-5 minutes. An old man with a green i.d. asked to pass in order to pray on the Temple Mount. The policewoman told him to go back and an enthusiastic volunteer offered to help her watch over the old man who walked slowly with the help of a cane, but who returned to Qalandiya. As he passed us, he turned to us and showed us his i.d. He said. I’m 76 years old.10:15 Transit drivers near the Qalandiya checkpoint told us about two recurrent problems. One is at the checkpoint at Wadi Nar where border police soldiers detain Bethlehem drivers with yellow transits on the side of the checkpoint for no reason. They believe that many times, the detention is because of a secret arrangement between the soldiers and drivers who don’t have licenses who come with their transits from the other direction. That way, they keep them busy while the drivers from Bethlehem have to return without passengers from the checkpoint. A second problem is that of the checkpoint at Mishor Adumim on Sundays through Thursday. The cabs are detained from 6:30 until 9:00. The road is closed during those hours hurting school children, the sick, doctors, and all the residents who have to get to work or go shopping. The i.d.’s of the detainees are taken by the soldiers and returned only at the end of the “closure”. A man asked us about his son having been hit the previous day — Thursday, at 6:30 on February 26th. The father said that the Machsomwatch women were in the area. was one of you witness to the beating? The boy was 15 years old, but looks younger than his age. On his swollen face, there are signs of his having been beaten. The officer refused to give the father the name of the soldier who was identified by the boy as the soldier who hit him.