Ar-Ram and Qalandiya, 18.8.04 – Wednesday, PM Observers: Ruthy B, Yehudit K, Natania G, Ivonne M (reporting)Guests: Jesus from Spain and Uri from Jerusalem) At Ar-Ram checkpoint the bride had to choose whether to hold the flower bouquet or her ID. This blue ID holder, crossing Ar-Ram checkpoint from her home in Bet Hanina to the church in Jerusalem in a flower decorated car and dressed in an enormous white wedding dress, chose to take her bouquet in her hands and thought that for this special day she could cross the checkpoint without her ID, since all the rest of her entourage did carry blue ID’s. She was held for an hour, until her father brought the ID to the checkpoint and she and her car (motor and all) were then thoroughly checked. She surely will never forget her wedding day.On the way from Ar-Ram crossing to Kalandia we could see that the works on the road in preparation for the wall continue.When reaching Qalandiya at 4:30, we saw a demonstration advancing from the northern part of the checkpoint towards the south. There were about 200 people including internationals, Palestinians and Israelis. They advanced towards the car lane and the soldiers started to shoot tear gas, but soon the orders changed and the soldiers allowed the head of the groups, which included the Internationals and the Israelis to cross the checkpoint, while they shot against those in the back, mostly the Palestinians. The demonstrators had sprayed slogans on the blocks. One soldier was particularly offended by the fact that one had sprayed a swastika and pointed out to us this terrible insult. Throughout the demonstration, the soldiers kept the crossing open for pedestrians and when the demonstrators left the car lane, they immediately opened the way for cars as well. There were a lot of military forces at the checkpoint. At the end of the demonstration, the shooting began at the northern part of the checkpoint. We saw many ambulances leaving towards Ramallah and heard many shots and stun bombs and saw tear gas. We informed Adi who informed the press, and called OCHA in Ramallah to find out how many were injured. OCHA informed us that the injured were mostly from tear gas, some from rubber bullets but not serious and only one girl was hospitalized for a head injury from a stone.At the checkpoint the soldiers kept the line going but were very offended by the bomb of last week and were implying that we were responsible for it. A blind elderly man, with a child guiding him, tried to pass from the side lane but the soldiers forced him to go back and stand in line. When we pointed out that this was a very old blind man, the soldier answered that since the High Court had ordered a humanitarian lane, we should direct this man to stand in that lane (the lane for women and children, which is as long and crowded as the lane for men). Aya’s children were not present in Qalandiya. Some were at the French Hill crossing when we went back at night. Only about 15 people asked: “Where is Aya?”