On the face of things it was an ordinary winter’s day at Qalandiya.  The weather was inclement (the air was full of dust) and cold and not many people were at the CP in the afternoon so there was no apparent reason for the CP not to be functioning properly.  But the lines were not moving and there were people who waited for an hour and a half in order to cross to Jerusalem to reach the night shift at their place of work or just to return home after a day’s studies at the university or a day’s work.

On reaching the CP we found that the entrance cages from the northern shed to the CP were not functioning due to “renovations”.  In their stead the Humanitarian Gate was wide open.  Two armed guards were watching the gate as well as the workers performing the “renovation” which consisted of laying a layer of barbed wire over the entry cages to prevent agile young men from climbing over the cages and dropping down at the head of the long morning lines in front of those laborers who had been waiting for hours to get through.  That is Israel’s answer to the problem of maintaining order when the pressure of large numbers at the CP arises:  not by increasing the number of people serving the public and not by enlarging the passageways and the turnstiles at their end, only by adding a fillip of barbed wire to prevent line jumpers from getting ahead.  

15:20:  Three passageways were active.  In the DCO passageway, two women were waiting with a small child in a carriage.  When they entered the examination area we could hear the (female) soldier giving them orders over the PA system, all the while addressing the women as “Sweetie”.  “Sweetie” do this and “sweetie” do that.  This would beg the question of how soldiers are prepared to perform their duties at the CP and why they think it permissible to call Palestinians using the CP “sweetie”.  The young man who followed the two women was also dubbed “sweetie” by the soldier.  Although it’s degrading, at least “sweetie” is not very aggressive.

Yael spoke with a number of officers by phone in an attempt to get the CP working more efficiently, but to no avail.  At the Humanitarian Hotline, no one was answering the phone.

15:55:  We went out to see what was happening in other parts of the CP.    The vehicle area was full of cars, with long lines stretching into the distance to the north and also to the south.  The western passageway for bus passengers was also quite full.  About 40 people were waiting on line outside the examination area.

At 4 PM one passageway was shut and only 2 remained active.  We got in line to cross the CP.  Approximately 18 people were ahead of us.  But then the CP closed down completely.  The guards (at the northern entrance to the CP) told us that a soldier had been injured.  Nothing moved for more than 15 minutes.  Then it turned out that one of the soldiers in the passageways had shut the door to the “aquarium” on his hand and had had to be evacuated for medical care.  As a result, the entire CP had been shut down.  (But even before this, nothing seemed to be working properly.)

It took us one-half hour to transit the CP.  When we reached the southern exit, we were told by people coming out behind us that a man with platinum in his leg was trapped in one of the passageways because the platinum was setting off the alarm system.  At that moment a soldier serving in the civilian authority arrived.  We informed him of the problems and he opened the locked exit turnstiles, facilitated passage of the man with the platinum in his leg and in general saw that the passageways were functioning insofar as possible.  This soldier did not appear to be jaded as are those who spend their days working opposite the Palestinian public.  He also appeared to have a much better understanding and preparation for his duties.