Ar-Ram, Qalandiya
Qalandiya, A-Ram, Sunday afternoon, 26.02.06\Observers: Natanya G., Phyllis W.( reporting) A-Ram: We reached the CP at 15:15. There were no detainees, no lines of pedestrians and about 20 cars were waiting in the vehicle line.Qalandiya: We reached Qalandiya at 3:30 PM and remained there until about 6:00 PM. During our entire stay pedestrian traffic flowed through the CP unhindered and, although there was intermittent crowding in the "sleeves" (internal passageways), transit through the CP appeared to be fairly quick. The line of vehicles going south was not very long – we timed the security check at less than one minute per vehicle.We did, however, witness several problems with the way the CP is operating:1) Announcements of the soldiers over the PA system: The system is being used for peculiar purposes. One soldier called out: "Natalie, you look good," and another called, "Don't make faces." (We reported both of these to Ophir from the DCO.) We also heard someone calling "Shit! Shit! Open the door." There were other weird "announcements" that we did not record.2) The lavatories: The men's washroom was open but very smelly (we did not go in to check). The women's washroom is still locked.When we arrived at the CP, we were approached by one of the children who transport packages through the CP, Ahmed Shakhlil who is 15.5 years old. He complained that some soldiers (unidentified) had taken his birth certificate and given it to another child. Unfortunately, he could not remember his I.D. number and so, when we asked Ophir to help he was unable to.At the end of our shift, on our way south, we saw a group of soldiers putting a hand-cuffed child into a small hut near the southern gate of the CP. Passers-by told us that there were actually two children, aged 10-11. We called Ophir as well as Elah from Mahat Benyamin (Benjamin Division). Both told us that the two kids had been caught with Molotov Cocktails and that they would be handed over to the General Security Services. This morning Ophir told us that the children had been transferred to the Ofer Installation yesterday evening.