Ar-Ram, Qalandiya

Ar-Ram, Qalandiya, Thursday am 2.2.2006, Watchers: Neta E. Tamar A. (reporting)The skies are grey as is the Wall which is slowly being completed, and so is the mood. The unsuitable warmth of the day added to the feeling of suffocation.Ar-Ram6.55. A steady stream of pedestrians, about 12 in the queue but crossing quickly. Students are not checked and the others are checked quickly. About 25 cars in the lane.Qalandiya7.15-8.08 When we arrive there is a normal flow of pedestrians: for the inner turnstiles there are short queues and for the external turnstiles there are no queues.There are about 40 cars in the two car lanes. It’s one minute per car, at the most a wait of 20 minutes. One of the drivers wants to get to the Givah Hatsarfatit and so will have to take the longer route through Hizma. A woman from Kfar Akab taking her baby to the kindergarten at Shuafat will go through Ar-Ram. In the line of cars to Ramallah there are about 15 cars. A soldier with his rifle pointed at the cars stands on the watchtower. When we return to the turnstiles there are two lines of about 15 people at the inner ones, women and the elderly crossing quickly. At the external turnstiles there are two queues, five people in one and ten in the other, no women in the queue.The women pass without their IDs or bags being checked but when our turn comes the woman soldier orders us to put our bags on the side and give her our IDs. Another soldier asks: “Why do you no longer come to drive us mad?” Together with us another few Palestinian women are also checked but after we go through there is no more checking.Ar-ram8.20. Only a few pedestrians and about 10-15 cars.