Qalandiya, Ar-Ram, Sunday afternoon, 30/01/05 Observers: Tamar F, Netanya G. and Phyllis WFor some reason our Sunday shift reminded us of checkpoint conditions as they were one year ago, as if nothing had happened in the meanwhile and there had been no periods of calm, no relaxation of restrictions, as if there was nothing good in store for the future. How depressing… We appeared to share this feeling with the Palestinians. The anger and despair were closer to the surface, breaking out here and there, even though there were no special or unusual events to report.Ar-Ram: 2 PM. The line of pedestrians was quite long and included students and teachers from the local school. Apparently one-half of the unit manning the CP was eating lunch in their "container" dining room and only when they emerged did the line begin to move more swiftly. The Principal of the school was angry at the delay and complained to the soldiers who did not seem to be unduly disturbed. Over 30 vehicles waited interminably in line. Qalandiya: We arrived at Qalandiya about 14:30. The CP was manned by the same MP unit and secured by a new group of reservists. We met A. (the DCO representative replacing E. until his return on Monday). He told us there was no relaxation of restrictions. Accordingly, lines of pedestrians were long and many people from outside the immediate neighborhood (Bethlehem, Jericho, etc.) were turned back to Surda. In only a small number of cases was the DCO rep willing to check with security and let the "outsiders" pass. Everyone looks tired of the "game." The humanitarian line opened and closed intermittently, soldiers were fairly attentive to crowding. All the soldiers were wearing name tags (Hebrew, Arabic & English).CP Commander Eli, of the MP, was observed behaving rudely towards Palestinians. He insisted on narrowing passage ways by moving coils of barbed wire closer. He accused one young fellow of carrying a forged ID (this was checked and found not to be the case). He also practiced his leadership skills on the MW team, ordering us not to stand where we could observe conditions at the northern entrance to the CP. He ordered a soldier to call the police to deal with us and, when the police didn't come, he phoned the DCO to complain. DCO officer Amos asked us to comply with the orders and, when we refused, came in person to see what was going on. Following a friendly discussion he agreed that this was a case of much to do about nothing. On leaving he complimented us on MW's good work.Towards the end of our shift, around 16:30, two BP police/soldiers once again arrived and began stopping Palestinians on their way north to write down their ID numbers for no apparent reason. Just to show who's boss. We left the CP at about 5 PM and returned to Ar-Ram where the line was considerably shorter.