Qalandiya, Ar-Ram, Sunday afternoon, 09/01/05 Observers: Tamar F, Shlomit F and Phyllis WAr-Ram: CP, 2 PM. Many soldiers were milling around the CP, mainly BP augmented by soldiers from an artillery unit who appeared to be in charge of security. There was no line of pedestrians and only a short line of vehicles waiting to pass. The DCO representative was present.Qalandiya: There were many soldiers at Qalandiya as well. For a change, all of them sported prominent name tags. No lines of pedestrians. The soldiers barely looked at the ID cards presented to them. The CP was open to passage by all. In one case, however, a fellow discovered that he had lost his ID and asked to return south to look for it. After some arguing he was allowed to do so on condition that he return north through the checkpoint afterwards. The trust paid off – the fellow found his ID and returned north towards Ramallah soon afterwards. The attitude of soldiers was generally to the point although some were actually friendly. The DCO representative was present throughout our stay. Two BP soldiers (not from the CP units) stationed themselves on the path north through the CP for perhaps half an hour to check the ID cards of people heading north. They recorded the ID numbers, returned the cards and allowed all to continue on their way. (Nobody, including the soldiers themselves, seemed to know why they were doing this.) Several teams of observers passed through the CP – mainly Norwegians. One team of Basque observers sat where the detainees usually sit for several hours. None of the teams reported any unusual happenings. A group of officers from the DCO, headed by a Lieutenant Colonel, visited the CP. We told them that there were complaints of flying checkpoints in the vicinity of Jabba. The officers claimed that there were no such CP's, only sampling checks on passing vehicles.We visited the northern parking area and talked with some of the people there. Most told us that they had no intention of voting because all politicians are crooked and their vote would make no difference. Better-off people passing through the CP told us that they had already voted or were on their way to do so.On the way back, in Qalandiya South, E. told us of problems entering El-Azariyya. Hannah told us that these problems had been solved. Returning to Ar-Ram we saw that all was as before. There were no special problems.