Qalandiya, Bir Nabala, Sunday afternoon, 10/06/2007Observers: Tamar F., Natanya G., Lizi S., Phyllis W. and a guest, Jesse, Phyllis reporting15:30 – Ar-Ram Very few soldiers. No detainees.15:40 to 17:30 – Qalandiya CP The heat was unbearable and there were very few people at the CP when we arrived. Only one passageway was operating. Tamar and Jesse went through to the vehicle CP. Traffic was not heavy. Bus drivers reported that the team of soldiers under the command of Shelly was working well while recounting stories of the misbehavior and rudeness experienced with another team that included a female soldier about whom we reported last week. The company with search dogs was once again working in the vehicle CP to the discomfiture of the Palestinians.At 16:30 an ambulance of the Red Crescent arrived and parked in the adjacent parking lot, as close as possible to the CP. Tamar asked the people in the ambulance if they needed help and the driver, who identified himself as a paramedic and head of the team, said that they were awaiting an ambulance that had left Ramallah 10 minutes ago carrying a 6-month old infant with cardiac problems who was to be transferred to their ambulance and delivered to El Mukassad Hospital in Jerusalem. The ambulance team included two doctors in addition to the driver, one a pediatrician and the other a cardiologist. They had intensive care as well as resuscitation equipment waiting and ready for the infant. The driver reported that many people had been hard at work since the previous day, when the infant’s condition had begun to deteriorate, trying to receive the necessary approvals to transfer him and one of his parents (not both mind you) to Jerusalem. When asked whether exposure of the infant to the extreme heat (39° C.) during his transfer from one ambulance to another would not be harmful, the driver responded with a shrug of his shoulders – there is no possibility of reaching East Jerusalem direct from Ramallah in one ambulance.The ambulance team waited worriedly and impatiently but after 15 minutes received word that the infant’s condition had deteriorated so seriously that his doctors were afraid he would not survive the trip. The ambulance returned empty to Jerusalem. Back at the pedestrian CP, we found 4 people waiting at the outer entrance to the DCO offices (even though the inner waiting shed was empty) when we arrived. When the soldiers spotted the MW team they opened the carousel allowing the four people to reach the DCO. We met two men with green (Palestinian) ID cards who emerged from the DCO. One of them, bearer of a US passport, told us that he had gone to the DCO to request a permit to reach Jerusalem in order to pray at the Al Aksa Mosque as well as to go to the US Consulate to arrange a visa for his wife who is also Palestinian. The DCO refused his request. A long chain of inquiry brought us to Micky, Assistant Spokeman for the Civil Administration, who promised to assist the man if he returned to present his request to the DCO the next morning.Following closure of the DCO passage, Passageway No. 4 was opened to pedestrian traffic to Jerusalem so that from 16:00 two passageways were in operation for the duration of the shift. Nevertheless conditions at the CP were deplorable. The lines of pedestrians moved very slowly so that, as time passed, more and more people crowded into the passageways in the heavy heat. We were offered a variety of excuses for the situation: changing of the guards (does this take half an hour?), computer problems, problems with the machine that deciphers hand-prints – at any rate there was no improvement during 1.5 hours and no respite for the many people waiting in the heavy heat. We witnessed two elderly people who got stuck inside Passageway No. 2 for one-half hour before the soldiers allowed them to pass (and the line outside just got longer all the time). In another instance, a female soldier in Passageway No. 4 devoted ten whole minutes to teaching one woman how to place her hand on the hand-print machine (and the line outside just got longer all the time). Further delays were caused by the demand that one woman remove the bunch of bracelets she was wearing, etc.Two instances involved youngsters (under the age of 16) who came to the CP without a copy of their birth certificates. In both instances the soldiers refused them passage despite the fact that one of the children was accompanied by his mother and recorded in her ID card (the other child was accompanied by his sister). A phone call to David A. was enough to straighten out the problem and both children from Jerusalem were allowed to go home.18:00 – Bir Nabala CP We drove to Bir Nabala. There was a line of 10 cars waiting to pass the CP when we arrived. The soldiers reported that no one was being denied entry to Bir Nabala. When we left there were 24 vehicles waiting in line. 18:15 – Lil CP Soldiers were performing selective examination of public transport vehicles. We took up a position opposite the CP. The soldier in charge of security was pointing his weapon at the passengers in the cars (as well as at the back of his fellow soldier). When we pointed this out our comment was ignored. When we left there were 24 vehicles waiting in line.