Qalandiya, Ar-Ram, Sunday, 29/8/04 PMObservers: Tamar F., Yael N. and Phyllis W.3:00 PM — Ar-Ram: The line of pedestrians was short but was held up by a problem caused by a group of five Norwegians when one of them was refused entry by the BP soldiers. This woman, who was working as a volunteer in Gaza, had lost her original visa document (a piece of paper that was not attached to her passport). She had received an alternative visa on leaving Erez but her entry to Israel had never been stamped in her passport. Although she had managed to pass through all the CP’s on the way from Gaza to Ramallah and back, and despite the fact that her passport was valid and she held an official visa for entering Israel issued at Erez, the BP’s at Ar-Ram decided to prevent her entry to Jerusalem. Our attempts to help, including a phone call to BP headquarters, failed and two of the Norwegians decided to try their luck somewhere else.4:00 – Qalandiya: On our way to Qalandiya we saw that work on the wall has resumed in earnest. After removal of the foundations that were laid in recent months, we saw that new foundations for the wall were being laid. Traffic in Qalandiya Square, south of the CP, was suspiciously light. At the CP we discovered new developments: one-way turnstiles have been installed to regulate pedestrian traffic going north and south. The turnstiles take no account of the needs of those passing through, many of whom are accompanied by several young children or old people and some of whom are carrying bags, trays of produce and a variety of objects that are difficult to squeeze through the stile. The soldiers seem to find the spectacle of people getting stuck in the stile amusing.But what’s there to laugh at. The only one who comes out badly is the State of Israel which, in attempting to “modernize” has actually installed equipment that is inappropriate and only makes life more difficult for the Palestinians. Another change made since last week is that the peddler’s market north of the CP was bulldozed on Thursday. Not a trace was left.The pilbox of the CP was manned by a senior volunteer from Bat Yam with an impressive moustache who repeatedly warned the soldiers against talking to us and tried to control what transpired in the CP. The soldiers generally complied with his instructions. Contrary to the relative flexibility we had seen at the CP in recent weeks, this volunteer refused passage to quite a few including a young newly-wed couple from Nablus who wanted to spend their honeymoon in Ar-Ram.A young fellow approached us to ask for help. He told us that his car had been confiscated and taken to Talpiot because he had not paid traffic fines of some NIS 4,000. The policeman who confiscated the car had also taken his ID papers. We have particulars of both the fellow and the policeman. Does anyone know how we can help?We left the CP at 6 PM without having helped very much. On returning to Ar-Ram we found a line of 20 pedestrians making slow progress, as well as the usual line of vehicles.