Ar-Ram, Qalandiya Wednesday afternoon, 07 March 2004 Watchers: Yehudit K., Daniella Y., Hagit S., Ruti B. (reporting) A quiet watch with no unusual happenings. A-Ram: There were no detainees. 15:50, Qalandiya:At Qalandiya South, the place was bustling with vendors’ stalls.At the northern part of the checkpoint, there were 3 young detainees. We were not able to find out if they had IDs or if these had been taken from them. One was released at about 17:00 PM. The inspections were quick; there was a separate lane for women, old people and children. An experienced woman soldier (of the Military Police) related decently to the people, as did an IDF reservist volunteer [posted to assist at the checkpoint] who was a paediatrician. They showed a considerable amount of flexibility.When a young man who lives in A-Ram was not allowed to return to his home because of the bureaucratic difficulty in updating his ID card to show his change of residence, the MP asked of us to “Try to get the orders changed!”. A soldier ran after a young man who had been inspected, in order to be sure that his jacket was not military surplus. He was asked: “And where are those shoes from?” The reply: “From Jaffa Road” [in Jerusalem]. Impression: In general, we had the feeling that perhaps our feelings have hardened, and the normal happenings at the checkpoints no longer seem so terrible. Most important, it is amazing to see the nonsense with which the IDF is preoccupied in the name of security — like the soldier who spent hours guarding the young detainees. Note to other Watch shifts: Is anyone dealing with the matter of a transit-van driver whose orange [Territories] ID was confiscated by a blue-uniformed [Israeli] policeman near Semiramis on a Thursday about a month ago?