A-Ram

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Place: 
Observers: 
Yael Y.L.,Yehudit S.
Apr-19-2007
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Morning

Zeitim CP, The ContainerThursday, 19.04.2007, AMObservers: Yael Y.L., Yehudit S. Zeitim CP: 06:45 - In the parking lot one can already hear orders coming out loud from the passage area. In the parking lot itself there are many taxis and minibuses waiting for those who exit from the checkpoint - mostly children on their way to school.As if the long high metal sheets that were put along the waiting line in front of the first carousels, they stretched also barbed wire wheels on the outside, and so we can not approach the blue metal grid. One can talk now only with those waiting by the DCO.Inside the checkpoint there are two line active, and passage takes about fifteen minutes per person. Many children enter the checkpoint running, and it seems that the grown-ups let them enter the checkup and exit quickly.The men exit the checkpoint putting their belts on.Two civil guards, with their frightenning uniform, are patroling inside the checkpoint and in the parking lot.Two men from the Ecumenical church organization arrive. They go through to the other side of the checkpoint, enter, and stand in order to watch the happennings and photograph (one of them is the photographer of the case of the dog that was set on the Palestinian woman in A-Ram). A blue policeman told them to leave the checkpoint and exit, and forbade them from photographing.One of the civil guardsmen approached us and tried to forbid us from talking with the Ecumenical men on the other side of the grid, claiming that we might exchange insecure things...The Container: 07:45 - There are four BP men in the chekpoint. From the car we saw one detained van. As we approached the place we saw another detained van and six Palestinians in the shed. There was no line of cars coming from Sawahre. From Beithlehem direction (south) there is a line of ten cars, including private cars, that does not move. Suddenly they start moving, documents are being checked quickly.07:47 another van is detained, and in the meanwhile the documents are returned to the second van that was held. The traffic flows almost without interruption. Every few minute there is a line of 5-6 cars that pass mostly without any checkup. By 07:55 - the third van is sent on its way, while the first one is still waiting.At 08:00 - the two Ecumenical church men arrive. Two soldiers approach them and ask them to stand aside, and approach us too and ask if everything is ok. We asked about the six detaineesinfo-icon, and they answer: "they are not our detainees, they are the detainees of the GSS. It will not take much longer". Ten minutes later five of the six detainees are sent on their way.In the meanwhile the Ecumenical men were talking with the people in the first detained van, and told us that among them there is a doctor that has to get to his hospital in Ramalla. We approached the checkpoint and gave the information to the soldiers, and indeed, within five minutes this van was sent on its way too.At 08:15 - loaded buses, among them some with children (annual tours?) arrive. On most of the buses it says that their destination is Alenby terminal.08:20 - the last detainee is sent on his way and goes by us. We tried to talk to him, but he refused and only hisses some very angry words that we did not understand between his teeth.We left when we saw that he was released and the traffic flaw without any interrusption.