Qalandiya, Ar-Ram 03/5/2004 Watchers: Tova S., Neta E., Chava B., Sara A. (reporting) Ar-Ram. As soon as we got to the checkpoint, Igor, commander of the checkpoint, approached us and demanded that we stand at a distance of 10 meters from the checkpoint. When we asked if we could come nearer if we had a question to ask, he angrily replied: “I don’t work with you”. There were two female detainees with blue IDs who were asked by a border policeman if they lived in Tel Baruch [a notorious neighborhood in Tel Aviv]. They understood his meaning and were furious. We went closer to the checkpoint and were shocked to find a sticker against uprooting of settlements pasted on the door of the post. We called Liat, the assistant to the commander of the border police and registered our complaint with her secretary and asked her to get back to us with a response. She called back within an hour and referred us to the commander of the border police in Jerusalem. We tried unsuccessfully to contact him for an hour. At Qalandiya, there was a lot of movement in the southern market area and a lot of stands. In conversation with one of the peddlers, we learned that they got a warning that starting from tomorrow, the stands will be removed to the area near the taxi stands. They asked us to try to prevent that because, according to them, there would not be enough place for all of them. There were a lot of soldiers at the checkpoint, but it was manned primarily by women soldiers from the military police. There was singularly crude and degrading behavior on the part of Liora who was from the previous unit and who has been at Qalandiya for a year. On the other hand, the behavior of Matan, the commander of the checkpoint from the engineering unit was commendatory. The man was pleasant and sincerely tried to help. We met Fares and complained to him about the behavior of the soldiers at Ar-Ram. He said that he intended to go there and speak to the commander. He told us that there is a new commander at Qalandiya and his name is Hani.A young woman, formerly a resident of Gaza, was detained. She is married to an Israeli and lives in East Jerusalem. For three years, she has been crossing the checkpoint daily to go to her work in Ramallah. Today, she was not let through. She does not have a permit to cross which would be given to her only if she changes her address to Jerusalem which she refuses to do, because then she would not be able to visit her family in Gaza. She was crying. She called her husband who came to the checkpoint. They were asked to wait because the police (apparently the GSS) were planning to come to the checkpoint to question her. They were waiting at the checkpoint for four hours and the police didn’t come. It was already getting dark and she was forced to go back to Ramallah and her husband returned to their home in Jerusalem with their two year old daughter.We called her the next day and learned that she reached her home by way of Surda. We went to the “hill of the children”. The building of the wall goes on apace. There were workers and guards there. The soldiers took up posts on the hill, and the children stayed away. The Palestinians look at the huge concrete barricades lying on the ground with fear and trembling. We returned to Ar-Ram and joined the long line of people waiting to cross. The border police were trying to get the people to stand in straight lines. It took us a half hour to cross. We noted that the sticker was removed from the post. There were about twenty detainees whose IDs were taken for inspection. They were called one by one to go up the steps of the upper post. There they were checked and made to sign a form (written in Hebrew). We were told by one of the detainees that many of those questioned were beaten, and we were asked by them to please stay. They said that our presence at the place leads to a different type of behavior by the border police. We turned to the general head of the border police who was visiting the place with a long list of complaints about the behavior of the soldiers