Qalandiya Checkpoints 28.9.07 AM Observers: Sarah K., Elisheva E., Noa P., Naomi L. (reporting) Third Friday of the Ramadan 11:00 – Qalandiya Checkpoint – young women and men crowd around the entries to the checkpoint compound and not allowed through. Our Jerusalem partners will report on this separately. But we do want to report a sight as yet unseen by us in “our” northern checkpoints – a scene particularly and especially shocking: Outside the checkpoint area, beyond the metal fence, and behind the concrete wall and behind the police railing, a small group of men and children was gathered to conduct the holiday prayers on the pavement, in protest of the fact that they were not allowed to go pray in the Mosques. The prayer was conducted in a quiet and orderly manner, and when it finished and people began to disperse, dozens of special police personnel (swat teams), Border Patrolmen and other types of uniform wearers spread out facing the Palestinians with plastic shields on their faces, helmets on their heads, snipers with their guns pointed at the people, finger on the trigger and eye trained on their sights, alert and ready for battle, and warning us that the children are about to begin throwing stones and we must not stand nearby, and we should also “photograph them throwing stones”… We did stay there. Even before a single stone was thrown, a shot was heard, and then another. Following that, very few little stones were thrown, did not hit a soul, and the children dispersed. We were shocked at the sight of the soldiers’ openly disappointed faces as the ‘event’ ended before it began and they were deprived of the opportunity to “show them what’s what” as they had been trained to do. 10 minutes later they were instructed to fold up the police screens and go. Our Jerusalem friends told us this is a routine procedure, familiar and anticipated. Each side played its part dutifully: the children threw and the soldiers kept asking their commander “can we shoot grenades already?” and he, “No, no!” waiting only to be given the reason to shoot. And we wondered why this provocative stance facing the children, which looked like a meaningless, ridiculous game of saving face which in a matter of a split second could (and has in the past) end with injury and death. After all, anyone present could tell who’s in charge.