including Anata

Anata, Ar-Ram Thursday, 25/11/2004, AMObservers: Mili M., Ruth E., Aviva W., Rama Y.(reporting) Anata. A tense morning. The vehicle line was endless,and the soldiers were checking each car mostmeticulously. Every once in a while they would takethe IDs of passengers for further checking with theGSS, and in many cases they would not bother to askthe driver to park his car at the side of the road, soas not to block the passage of the cars behind him. Aman driving his pregnant wife to hospital was detainedfor no apparent reason - they both were in possessionof blue IDs. By the time we got there, they had beenwaiting already for about twenty minutes, and it wasevident that the woman was not feeling well. Wenagged, to no avail. Eventually, about 10-15 minutesafter our arrival, the couple was let go.A civil police patrol car arrived, an officer got out.We asked whether the impossible traffic jam was reallynecessary. Of course it was ­ “security”. All thesame, he went over to the soldiers, said some words,got back to his car and drove away. And the linestarted to move...People were angry and frustrated. According to them,the main responsible for those occurrences was onesoldier - we don’t know his name.Ar-Ram. At Neve'e Ya’akov junction, we saw yet anotherhuge traffic jam all the way north to Ar-Ram, anddecided (wisely) to avoid it and park in Neve'e Ya’akov,and then walk down to the CP. One of those spiky chains was stretched across theroad, just in front of the CP, and cars were checked.There were five soldiers at the roadblock and at timeseven seven, but there was no rush; they were talking,drinking coffee, laughing, while all those hundreds ofcars were stuck in the jam. Four or five drivers weredetained, apparently, for a long time. It came outlater that all were detained because their cardocuments were not in order, and seemingly, they wereawaiting the civil police to arrive and fine themaccordingly. According to one of them, the soldiersclaimed that they were not able to contact the police…I called Neve'e Ya’akov police station commander. He wasvery polite and said that he would send a patrol car.And indeed, in about twenty minutes we saw a policepatrol car stuck somewhere in the jam. By then, thespiky chain was removed, and the cars started to move.Eventually the police got there, tickets were given tothe detainees and they were free to go, and the jamwas no more. Happy end…