Qalandiya, Ar Ram Monday afternoon, 15 March 2004 Observers: Noa E, Chava B, At the Qalandiya checkpoint:There was a long line with waits between 5 and 10 minutes. There is a separate lane for children, women, the elderly, and the sick, which alleviates the wait in the pedestrian queue. Shachar, the commander of the checkpoint, told us that this lane was his initiative. There is a new prefabricated building at the checkpoint that will apparently be used to screen parcels. Several transit-van drivers told us that they were detained by Shachar for “re-education”. He wanted to instruct them to park along the concrete blocks and not near the checkpoint. Also detained: several people who were picked up in the quarry had to wait three hours until they were released. We were unable to do anything for them. Upon our return to the A-Ram checkpoint:We met a long line of pedestrians — longer than usual. The reason for the delay was that the people were not maintaining a sufficient distance for the Border Police who were performing the inspections. All this was in freezing cold.