Morning

There was no passage towards Jerusalem in E-Ram and Qalandya for Palestinians with red or green ID with permits, magnetic cards or people who needed to go home..We were helpless. E-Ram: We approached the commander and asked to widen the U-turn, because of difficulty to maneuver cars. We were told that this passage should be closed completely and transit drivers are guilty of traffic disorder.Qalandya: Very small movement northbound since Ramalla is under curfew. We spoke with the Palestinian in charge of the transit cabs about closing transit parking space. He called the DCO commander several times but without any success. We were approached by a transit driver whose ID had been confiscated from Wednesday and another one whose transit-window was smashed by a soldier as a punishment for a wrong parking. We decided to approach two volunteers and 5 young soldiers with inquiries but met with arrogance, silly laughing and one of the young soldiers stated that he "does not want to be humane". The commander in charge could not be approached at all. Later on we realized that the biggest problem is with people who have “wrong” ID-s but live south of Qalandya like Ein Tzurik or Anata and cannot go home. We could not help anybody today, not even a young woman with a baby or a woman who needed to go to a gynecologist. We called the district commander'soffice and one of his colleagues explained that since the Karkur attack, all working permits are cancelled. He justified soldiers’ rudeness by the fact that they are afraid since there was shooting and stone-throwing in Qalandya. We were approached by a father of a 7 years old boy who said that original (not photocopied) birth certificates are requested from children in spite of their being accompanied by parents with blue IDs where children’s names appear. We should check this information! We called Moked which works on Saturdays. We called the army spokesman, who spoke with somebody from the DCO. Hepromised to speak on behalf of people who wanted to return home. The checkpoint commander could not be reached by us and by others. Perhaps he changed his phone. The only good news is that Tora Borra was very active.Our activity was acknowledged by a person who insisted to pay for all of us on the way back from Qalandya to E-Ram.