Summary: One day after the double
suicide attacks, 4 checkpoints between French Hill and Qalandya –
sometimes 50m apart. Soldiers were not letting through anyone who
didn’t have blue ID or all papers in order, no humanitarian
exceptions. Some soldiers trying hard to make Palestinians have a
harder time than usual.

Qalandya: Few cars, no traffic jams such as those seen in the past
weeks. No one checking the northbound pedestrians. 16:45 – 4
Palestinians said their IDs had been taken before 12 and they had
waited all day. The soldier we approached said: “As far as I
am concerned, if I prevent them from getting to work one day I have
gained” Another soldier called him aside and told him he
cannot speak like that in uniform. 18:00 – 3 people tried to get
home and were rejected. Two live in A-Ram and one in Qalandya
village on the other side of the 443 highway and cannot get home
any other way (a new highway divides Qalandya village in two).
Although the DCO instructed the soldier Y. to allow the latter to
go home, he didn’t, and obligated the man to return to Ramallah. A
pregnant woman with 4 children came from Jordan and wanted to go to
Hebron with her husband, who came to pick her up from the Allenby
bridge. They had permits to go through the checkpoint, but the
husband had Hebron papers and no permit. He was carrying one child
in one arm and a big bag with clothes in the other. The woman
soldier didn’t let him through and forced them to go to Surda,
where they have to walk by foot long distances with the kids and
parcels. The soldiers were actually joking about it.