Qalandiya, 2.2.04, afternoon MachsomWatchers: Tova Sh., Chava B., Sarah A. Ar-Ram :There is almost no traffic. Two elderly women ask to pass through toward Jerusalem, but they don’t have documents – the soldiers insist on refusing them passage. The women sit down on the ground and wait a very long time, in vain. Qalandiya :A very long line of cars in the direction of Ramallah – the checking of vehicles takes place very slowly – there are soldiers who don’t know the instructions and argue among themselves about giving travel permission.A taxi driver whom we know got a permit after our intevention and clarification of the instructions. At the northern checkpoint, a unit from the IDF Engineering Corps is on duty, who are newly posted to the Qalandiya checkpoint. They are polite, but work strictly “by the book” and never allow passage to people who don’t have permits in hand, even if it is a case of women with babies or elderly women, etc. At the two booths there are IDF reservist volunteers directing the checkpoint and sending people back to Ramallah continuously. There is a very long line of pedestrians and clearly the two booths are insufficient, which generates a long, annoying and tense waiting period for the people who seem to be asking to get to their holiday dinner. Meanwhile, the soldiers are busy in pursuing, then segregating and expelling the people who are trying to get through by the “New Jersey” barrier. Two youths without documents who tried to sneak in through “Tora Bora” [an unofficial side passage] were caught and handed over to the blue [Israeli] police.There is no holiday spirit – just a lot of suffering and sadness. Release of confiscated vehicles: :Following a case we had last week with a driver whose vehicle was confiscated – Tova requested to clarify how it is possible to release confiscated vehicles. This was the beginning of a long story with innumerable telephone calls to all kinds of addresses. The first call was to the assistant of Roni Numa, Itai Shelah, who – before he hung up the phone – asked to make it clear that he doesn’t want to hear about us [MachsomWatch] or to speak with us. Tova called the Benyamin police, to the Operations Unit, who passed the ball back and forth several times until she was told quite openly, by a police officer who gave his name from the Benyamin police station, and said that the police has an exact list of every car and/or object which has been confiscated by them, in contrast to the total lack of order within the IDF. He claims that in Operations they have no interest in dealing with the subject, and therefore they pass on the complaints to the police. He also claimed that the IDF has authority over the police and not the other way around. He mentioned that the subject had been written about in the press and his only suggestion was to turn to the Supreme Court. Yael , who volunteers at the Hotline, carried out all the possible investigations concering the confiscated vehicles. The recommendation of the Hotline is to write letters to the IDF on the issue.