Qalandiya, Bir Nabala, Sunday afternoon, 30/09/2007Observers: Natanya G., Tamar F. and Phyllis W., Phyllis reporting15:30 A-Ram There were no Palestinians at the CP.15:45 Following reports that the New A-Ram CP had been moved to a new location, we decided to go look for it. We passed through Qalandiya where traffic appeared to be very light and continued via the vehicle CP back in the direction of Jerusalem. On leaving the CP we turned west at the circle and immediately saw a long unruly line of some 50 cars and trucks several hundred yards down the road. Three BP soldiers were doing the checking. Drivers who had passed through the CP told us that they had waited in line for half an hour. A make-shift tent at the CP hid two detained children from Bir Nabala, ages 14 and 13.5. The two of them told us that the younger one had been beaten by the soldiers. We telephoned Arik, commander of the unit. He told us that he would send an officer immediately to see that the children were released but couldn’t promise to speed up passage through the CP. Within 5-10 minutes a military vehicle with three more soldiers arrived. After sending the two children on their way (at 16:02), the new team joined the other soldiers at the CP and speeded the process. From our observations we concluded that almost 90% of the vehicles passing through this new CP were traveling to the Qalandiya CP and entering the Palestinian Authority so that this CP’s main “raison d’etre” appears to be its nuisance value. A passer-by who stopped to look at the proceedings noted that even before the arrival of the new soldiers, the original team had speeded the pace of its examinations when they saw that the Machsomwatch people were coming. Tamar spoke with one of the soldiers about the purpose of the CP. The soldier claimed that relocation of the CP was beneficial to those traveling to Jerusalem via Qalandiya because they no longer had to wait at the New Ar-Ram CP after waiting at Qalandiya. But the new CP, which operates 24 hours a day, holds up many more vehicles. Finally, the soldier said that the new CP was intended as a demonstration of Israel’s presence. (As if someone could actually ignore that fact.)A taxi driver told us that he used to pick up workers at the near-by Atarot Industrial Zone and bring them to Qalandiya CP. But now, with the new CP, this was no longer worth his while due to the long time spent waiting in line. So the workers now walk to Qalandiya on foot.We continued to observe at the new CP until 16:20. When we left there was a line of 25-30 cars. We traveled on to Bir Nabala.16:43 Bir Nabala Thirteen cars were waiting in line, waiting time was negligible. Four soldiers were on duty at the CP. They told us that entry to Bir Nabala was unrestricted for all Palestinians.17:35 Qalandiya At the end of the daily Ramadan fast there were almost no pedestrians in the CP. Two passageways were open and both were empty. A woman holding an expired entry pass was not allowed to cross through the CP. She told us that it was important that she reach Mukassad Hospital where her young son was hospitalized. But at this time of evening there was no one to talk too: the DCO representative had gone already and no one was answering the phones at the Humanitarian Health Hotline. We advised the woman to return to the DCO offices the following morning.18:00: We decided to check-up once again on what was happening at the new Atarot CP so on leaving Qalandiya we got on line at the vehicle CP. There were only four cars ahead of us but the line didn’t move. Only one lane was open and the soldiers (MP’s) were working very slowly. It took us 30 minutes to pass through the CP while a long, long line accumulated behind us. On reaching the soldiers, we called their attention to this fact but it didn’t seem to make any impression on them. On reaching Atarot we found that the line there had shortened considerably so we backtracked and returned to Jerusalem via Lil CP (where the traffic was moving freely) and Hizmeh where traffic was backed up considerably even though 3 lanes were open and soldiers were passing cars through efficiently (mostly driven by Israeli settlers).