including Anata

Anata, Ar-Ram, Qalandiya, Thursday, 10/2/2005, PMObservers: Ruth E., Aviva W., Rama Y. (reporting)A freezing cold and uneventful morning (or almost so).Anata. A trivial incident: A youngster of 17-18 rushesby the soldier without presenting his ID. This callsfor an appropriate disciplinary response: He is calledback roughly, shows his ID - a blue one - and the IDis taken from him. A young man, who has passed the CPand hangs around for some reason, hastens to protectthe boy, and his ID is taken too. We intervene, and asoldier tells us in a resonant basso profundo to stepimmediately back, or else. By then Ruthi has hermobile phone in one hand and the long list of phonenumbers in the other. While we still debate whom tocall, the IDs are returned to the two transgressors,and they are free to go. The whole incident didn'ttake more than five minutes.Ar-Ram is almost dead, as usual, and in Qalandiya,even the usual traffic jam has disappeared. Worriedpeople keep asking us about the future, about thecutting off of Jerusalem residents from the rest ofthe West Bank, and where the new CP is going to beconstructed.