Qalandiya, Sun 4.10.09, Afternoon
"This is a most difficult passage...a person could die here... they treat human beings as though they were fools... if a sick person were to arrive- he could die because he wouldn't find anyone to turn to, if he were to talk to the soldiers- they would make a fool out of him..."
So said a person who started talking to us as soon as we reached the soldiers' post, the one overseeing the lane that is intended for vehicles entering the checkpoint, this lane had recently been reopened by the other lanes and is now surrounded by barbed wires.
It was because of the slow pace in which the vehicle line for those entering the checkpoint moved, that made it possible for the speaker to leave his car, approach us and get what was bothering him off his chest. When the line advanced: he hurried back to his car, drove up to the car before him, returned to us and continued to putting forward his bitterness:
"Someone needs to check it- I'm telling you, I also use the passage at Bethlehem and Shua'afat, and this one is the worst!... It makes your stomach ache...
-Aren't we human beings? They think we aren't human beings..."
The combined words, "human being", were repeated over and over again. It was obvious that this person, this human being, was expressing a deep feeling of hurt caused by the humiliating experience that the security forces put him through at the vehicle checkpoint. Experiences that we can never witness by ourselves. As "Jews" we will never have the "privilege" of being treated as Arabs, and from where we stand while gazing at the inspection process we can't hear the conversation between the inspectors and the drivers.
While we were standing in front of the vehicle lane, we noticed, for the fist time in months, that there was a "civilian dog" held by his leash by a civilian dog trainer. Both of them were standing by their civilian car and had a civilian guard watching over all three of them- a display of the on going privatization process taking place at the checkpoint.
New writings on the wall:
There were two new graffitists. The first one was the inscription of the name: Shadia Mansour. We searched the net and came up with a video clip directed by an artist who answers to that name.
You can see it on You Tube- but we warred!! - it contains some difficult substance.
We couldn't make out what the meaning of the second graffiti. We will be more then happy to hear any suggestions.