Qalandiya, Ar-Ram Wed. 08.12.04 p.m. Observers; Ivonne M, Leora S, Tami B.(reporting) Liat S. (photography student)The checkpoints once again prove that everything is miserable in its own way, and we are reminded that nothing can be anticipated. Today we witnessed the randomness and uncertainties in two specific incidents that lasted during the entire duration of our shift. The first was a young boy, P, a nursing student in Ramallah who asked to cross over to visit his parents in Hebron. He underwent the magnetic test of the sniffer. We already described this procedure in the past. The soldiers chose a man from the lane, a young one generally, and pull him aside. A male or female soldier with a white glove rubs the person’s arm and then empties his bag and puts it aside and checks it with a kind of electronic device. More than once, we saw the soldiers argue among themselves about the findings of this examination and rub the glove over the person again and again . Not this time.The device indicated that the young man was “not clean” and he was told to stand aside and wait. What a strange thing. Soldiers whose hands are contaminated with residue of explosives tell a young man, that perhaps touched them to stand aside and not to move. Still with his bag, not in handcuffs, not even under anyone’s guard., the man waited for six hours, shivering from the cold (so we thought) although the shivering was primarily from fear. No one had spoken to him for more than 3 hours when we arrived. Then began the procedure—the fabricated assignment of responsibility from one to another and efforts to avoid it. The commander of the checkpoint who was essentially responsible said that he did not know what was going to happen and paid no attention to the whole scene. Then someone presented himself as an officer of the military police and stated that the young man was delayed according to his instructions and afterwards, he will be released and then said that this was not according to higher orders. A soldier from the border police suddenly appeared and cheerfully told the detainee (via an interpreter) that he had been selected from among the people in line and that he would be released very soon but that he had to appear at the police station in the morning and then passed on his ID to a woman soldier who didn’t say a word. However, others said that he was not to move from there until the police arrived and everyone together, each had his own strategic scenario. One spoke with the platoon commander saying that it was his responsibility and another spoke with the brigade commander saying it was his responsibility and another spoke with the "shin bet" who would soon arrive and another announced that the police were on their way from the DCO. It was not until the platoon commander was asked to explain just who is responsible for the young man and why the "shin bet" was not called in or the police – and why he had to be kept waiting for 5 and a half hours, that he admitted that he had no idea what was happening , and our quiet appeal to a woman soldier who was standing there, together with the promise of the boy’s father that he will go to wherever he must go tomorrow, led to the end of the story and his release. Six hours the boy was shivering from cold, frightened of a line of soldiers.The second incident: Two men were caught by soldiers in a jeep on the road that leads to Jabba. The soldiers confiscated their IDs – an act which is specifically forbidden, and told them to go to the checkpoint to get them. They got to the checkpoint but no one there knew what they were talking about. Others that arrived about the same time got their IDs back and were freed, but not them. Pressure on the checkpoint commander convinced him to try and find out what was happening. Their IDs, he informed them after an hour and a half were found. The soldiers in the jeep will give them to the soldiers in a hummer who will bring them to the checkpoint. But the soldiers in the hummer didn’t arrive. Another two hours passed, including constant telephone calls to the division, but the hummer did not arrive. At about six thirty, a lawyer from Qalandiya arrived with the brother of one of the men and and asked that he be allowed to come with them and return later to the checkpoint to get his ID. He was allowed to do so. At this point, another man came into the picture who, for a second day running, showed up at 7 in the evening as he was told to do so in order to get the keys of his car that were confiscated from him north of the checkpoint – once again an act which is specifically forbidden. The keys, which were not found the previous night were not found this time either. He stood there, turned to the soldier and the women soldier who were kidding around, until he understood that there is no one to talk to, and we realized this as well. The hotline for defense of the rights of the individual suggested that he turn to the DCO where there would be people to talk to. On our way to the car, we saw an ambulance with flashing lights and military jeeps around it. We approached. It appears that the military jeep ran over a man who was crossing the street and injured his leg. The man, a heart patient, lay in the ambulance and now some legal discussions were taking place about the details. His brother who was with him was quick to tell us again and again that it was simply an accident – something happened and there is nothing to do about it. We did not doubt this for a moment. We were reminded of tractors bringing piles of tar to the checkpoint, crossing between tens of people without stopping, without slowing down, without beeping. We have full confidence in them!