Qalandiya and its surrounding areas ,Monday, 18.09.06 a.m.Observers: Anat T, Edna F (reporting), 3 guests from the Basque Solidarity movementWe started out at 7:00 o’clock at the Anata checkpoint. The checkpoint was very noisy. Traffic flowed in the two lanes for inspection. A minibus for the neighborhood passed in the third lane, which was too dangerously close to the humanitarian lane for the school children. There were a lot of pedestrians. The men and the young men passed through the “sleeve”. Children until age 14 approximately (it depends on how old they look) go through without inspection. Children between 14 and 16 are sent through the sleeve, the lane for the men, and are checked. In the area, there are a lot of soldiers – more than 8. It should be mentioned that the parking lot for the buses which transport children to their schools in Jerusalem and Beit Hanina has been paved. Jamal told us that the neighborhood committee has arranged the transportation well and that there is an agreement with the schools about possible tardiness. There is still a case pending in the Supreme Court regarding the people against the wall, but the meanwhile, a metal fence has been built.From there, we traveled to Qalandiya via Pisgat Zeev and viewed the erection of the wall. At the Hizme checkpoint, we crossed without problems as did all the other cars in both directions. At Qalandiya there was a horrible melee. We learned from a discussion with a police officer and from the residents that this was the day for permits to those visiting family in jail, and the families were traveling to the jail in Beer Sheva. For whatever reason, all the other stations were totally congested and there was no progress. The officer remained at the place and called out to the inspectors to speed things up. After 30 minutes of crowding and sending people from line to line, things got organized and the congestion lessened. At the same time, a lot of people were waiting for the opening of the DCL in order to get all kinds of permits. At 8:30, when the DCL opened, the line disappeard. They did not go into the DCL but the Palestinians complained that the soldiers in the DCL relate to them like animals. Also, a father told us that they ripped up his son’s permit because he tried to return home via a checkpoint that was not near to his home. From Qalandiya, we went by way of route 443. We passed the Atarot checkpoint en route to the Begin highway, got off at the Ramot exit and traveled via the old route outside of Ramot to the turn to the dirt road opposite Beit Ixsa. There was a thorough inspection by police and border police. The police stopped every Palestinian vehicle with blue i.d. and sent them to the hut on the hill by the street. There they were questioned and searched. All this, we were told, was to catch stolen vehicles. The checkpoint operates every day. At the site, there was a border police jeep that dealt with two young Palestinians who did not have work permits and who were caught at a building site in Ramot. The jeep commander dealt with matters pleasantly enough, filled out the forms quickly, and sent the men back to the territories. Also in the opposite lane that leads to Ramot from Jerusalem there were border police inspections. We turned right on the impossible dirt road that replaced the paved road, and traveled parallel to the Begin highway on the less developed side of the wall and reached the center of Bir Naballah (which reminds one of a ghetto). It is totally quiet. We looked for the passageway under the Begin Road, crossed on it at reached the checkpoint that is 100 meters from the wall. The checkpoint is manned by reserve soldiers (no wonder that they have forgotten how to engage in battle) and every vehicle was checked. Most of the vehicles passed, but we saw two that were returned to Ramallah. The soldiers did not want to tell us the regulations regarding passage today. On the way back to Ramot, we met a driver who showed us the way, and learned of the new obstacles about the cutting off of Bir Naballah from Ramallah and Beit Hanina. He told us that his wife and children already left and live with the parents of his wife in Beit Hanina, but he can’t afford to move because apartments are so expensive in Beit Hanina. At 10:30, we invited our Basque friends to a cup of coffee and we were invited back to Bilboa. Perhaps we will go there some Monday instead of to the depressing checkpoints.