Anata, A-Ram, Qalandiya

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Place: 
Observers: 
Brenda H,Mor B
Apr-10-2007
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Afternoon

Anata, A-Ram, Qalandiya Tuesday 10.4.2007 pmObservers: Brenda H, Mor B (reporting)16:35 AnataClosure and the checkpoint was almost empty with very little movement. A bus driver did not understand why there was still a closureinfo-icon. After all, Pesach was over, (it was the day of the Mimouna festival). There were plenty of border police and security personnel at the checkpoint.There was one detainee. He had tried to cross because he needed to get to hospital for a pre-operation medical examination. He had been caught alongside a petrol station where his ID had been taken from him and he had been sent up to the checkpoint about 300 meters away. He had already been there about four and a half hours. The officer at the checkpoint confirmed the story and was trying to help the man, by phoning repeatedly so that the soldiers who had taken the ID would bring it to the checkpoint and return it. The soldiers were from the Nun Vav brigade that patrols around Jerusalem and they were not in any hurry. 17:20 We phoned the humanitarian office. They recorded the details. A moment after we had phoned a jeep arrived and the detainee was given back his ID. He was released – after five and a half hours of detention.17:35 Dahia, Ar-RamAlmost completely empty of traffic and hardly any pedestrians. 17:45 We travelled along the western side of the Separation Wall and arrived at the checkpoint from a different direction. Just beyond the industrial area of Atarot there were four concrete blocks in the road, manned by a border policeman and two soldiers. 17:50 QalandiyaThere were not many vehicles at the vehicle crossing points. There were about 70 pedestrians and two lanes were open. People waited just over ten minutes to cross. Everyone was surprised that there was still a closure. They all thought that the festival was finished. Soldiers were shouting through the loudspeakers and in the lines, people were crushed together.A man whose daughter aged five and a half was in Alyn Hospital, was not permitted to cross. Closure is closure, shouted the soldier. The man insisted, and tried to talk to the soldiers in English, but in vain. He did not give up. His daughter is in a serious condition. She had almost died two weeks ago when someone threw a stone at the car in which she was travelling, and she was struck on the head. She had been in intensive care in Hadassah Hospital and was still paralysed down one side, unable to speak. We phoned Ophir, and while we were speaking to him, the man was phoning someone else at the DCO who had promised to help him. The problem was that the DCO had made an error on the man's permit, and had not detailed the medical circumstances. That was why he was not being permitted to cross. He had tried to explain that it would be a problem but the DCO had said, wrongly, that it would not be. Ophir sent an officer, and when the man tried to cross for the second time, they allowed him to do so. 18:50 Just beyond the Qalandiya checkpoint was a second checkpoint almost alongside Atarot. Apparently it has been there for about a month. The soldiers said that it is a permanent checkpoint, but there were not any long queues and the inspections were rapid. In a short conversation with the soldiers, we heard the usual racist mantras about “them”. But the atmosphere at the checkpoint was not tense or violent, and one of the soldiers was a little interested in our views and opinions.