Qalandiya, Tuesday afternoon, 28 September 2004 Observers: Aya K., Iris B., Tami G., Nitza., Roni H. (reporting)An afternoon of drab occupation routine with arbitrary decisions of a ratherunexpected kind. Two young men, residents of Hebron, were caught in Yaffowithout permits by the police and brought to Qalandiya. After one hour ofdetention they were released and allowed to continue their journey home toHebron. On the other hand, a Jerusalem resident with a blue[Israeli] ID, on his waynorth, was detained for more than 2 hours, his ID submitted for a check by the Shin Bet [Israel Security Service]. At the end of his detention he received a summons toappear after 12 days in Ofer camp before Captain R. We’ll follow up onthis “strange” invitation.Several Jerusalem residents were asked to show receipts of municipal tax payments!They are supposed to carry the receips with them!On Monday evening the checkpoint has been completely closed, because a settler has killed a Palestinian near Beit Fourik! A taxi driver friendtold us that two women with babies were stranded at Qalandiya and could notgo home to Tulkarm or Jericho, respectively, since the roadthrough Surda and Atara has also been closed! He decided to give the womenshelter in his own house, otherwise they would have been left on the street!This is a just one distant random result of the inhuman policy of arbitraryclosure after the killing of a Palestinian by a settler!! We heard bitter complaints by the handcart carriers about a new rule, whichwas recently imposed on them by the army. Until now the owners of thebaggage went together with the carts through the car lanes, where they werebeing checked. Now the baggage owners have to go through the pedestrians’lane and pass the magnometer, which means that they are being separated fromtheir baggage. Most clients do not agree to this regulation and take thebaggage with them. For those who do agree, the porters have to wait to passthe line, which might take quite a long time and neutralizes their chance toget another job. As a result of this regulation the porters have lost twothirds(!) of their daily income, which is meager in any case! They haveturned to the DCO [IDF Civil Administration] officers for help, but without results.