Outside Qalandiya checkpoint

Outside Qalandya checkpoint, Friday , Ramadan 13.10.06Observer: Ivonne M (reporting): 9:20 to 11:45 a.m.Three different Machsom-Watch shifts took place in Qalandiya on Friday morning and three reports were written: See Roni H's report from inside Qalandya checkpoint and Magdalena H's report from earlier in the morning on that same Friday. As well, there were volunteers from the World Council of Churches on the spot.Third Friday of Ramadan. The official announcement on Israeli radio is that all Jerusalem residents, West Bank men over 40 and all women will be allowed to go to pray in Al Aqsa on the third Friday of RamadanAt 9:20 when we arrived at Qalandiya, we heard from far the sound of stun bombs and shooting. There were dozens of buses crowding the southern-Jerusalem side of the checkpoint and hundreds of Palestinians, many women and children, who had already crossed the checkpoint or who came from Qalandiya village at the southern side of the wall, were rushing to get into a bus on their way to the Mosque in the Old City.At 9:30, on the northern side of the checkpoint, by the Qalandiya camp, we saw hundreds of people kept back by soldiers, border police, blue-dressed and black-dressed police, civilian dressed security, water tanks and two horses. The Palestinians kept back were those who wanted to reach the checkpoint in order to get to the 11:00 a.m. prayers. They came from all over the West Bank and some had been on the road from 3:30 a.m. On the ground, in the car lanes, we saw many stones and the remains of tear gas, stun bombs and also of rubber bullets (although the army official we spoke to denied they shot rubber bullets we picked up an empty case that says: Rubber bullet 355, Israel Police, minimal distance for use 20 m.). People tell us that early in the morning, when the children saw the closed doors to the vehicle lanes at the checkpoint, they threw stones. When we arrived, there was no stone throwing and the stun bombs and gas were used to get people to go back, although this is difficult when you are in the middle of a crowd. A man told us he had been on the road for 6 hours, starting in Nablus and had crossed 5 checkpoints before he reached the southern side of Qalandiya checkpoint. Another man, also from Nablus, began his journey at 3:30 a.m. and reached Qalandiya by 8 a.m. Now it is 10:30 and he has been refused entry because, although he has a permit to go into Israel to work, he is only 43, 2 years short of what the soldiers claim is the age limit (contrary to what the radio announces). The claim of the army officers is that because there is closure the permits are not respected. So what is the "security" rationale of letting people over 45 cross to Jerusalem but not letting through those who are below 45 but who any other day can go into Israel? A man coming from Jenin has been allowed to cross but his 13 year old son has not and therefore he has to return to Jenin. A woman has come from Silwan and it has taken her 1 hour and 3 checkpoints to be on the southern side of Qalandiya. She is now waiting for her 28 year old husband to cross and join her. It is a long useless wait. 10:00 a.m. - Soldiers and border police run after people at the northern side of the checkpoint and horseback riding police push them back towards Qalandiya refugee camp. Zacharia from Physicians for Human Rights calls and tries to find out whether there is an ambulance and whether there are injured people. We see 2 Palestinian ambulances near the Qalandiya camp, but hear no sirens during all our shift, although an army officer tells us there might have been injured earlier in the morning.We see some older people and women (who officially should be allowed to cross) returning, while we see some young people crossing. There are no iron-clad rules for the soldiers, mainly they use "profiling" measures, that is, stereotypic judgments.10:30 – The soldiers stop the flow of people into the checkpoint and keep them in the big parking lot at the northern entrance to the checkpoint. We see a trickle of women and children coming out of the checkpoint at the southern-Jerusalem end. At 10:45 the muezzin can be heard from Qalandiya and Ramallah. At 10:50 the horses are brought back to the northern side of the checkpoint.At 11:00 all the people on the northern side gather in the parking lot. Many men approach the parking lot fence separating the car lanes from the parking lot in the unrealistic hope of seeing their wives and female family members who have crossed and are now left alone, sometimes without money, on the southern side of the checkpoint. We see some of the waiting women returning to the northern side and some going ahead to the Mosque. By 11:15 the ambulances have left, probably expecting no more clashes, but then we hear stun bombs again. The soldiers approach the fence separating them from the northern side of the checkpoint that opens to the car lanes and some children throw a few stones. Cars and older people walk among the Palestinian children and the stun bombs as if nothing is going on. At 11:20 the soldiers start running after the children. At 11:25 we are close to the soldiers and see no stone throwing but the soldiers shoot stun bombs nevertheless. At 11:30 the soldiers begin to hit the bars and make a big racket inside the checkpoint where people are crowded, with the aim of frightening them to leave. At 11:40 the hundreds gathered at the parking lot get in line and start praying as they are supervised by soldiers, police and the cavalry corp. At 12:12 I hear on Israeli radio an interview with the Chief of Police Franco who says that there has been an easing of regulations so that all worshipers reach the Mosque. He repeats that all Palestinians over 40 were allowed to cross checkpoints into Jerusalem, except Gaza residents and that 130,000 Palestinians actually reached the Old City.