Qalandiya

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Place: 
Observers: 
A-Ram,Qalandya,Shadi
Oct-9-2003
|
Morning

A-Ram, 06:40. Pedestrian
traffic moved through smoothly, the car line was slow but not
unusual. We saw border policemen chasing after two men who had
gotten past their lines in two separate incidents. One was
apprehended and detained.

Qalandya, 07:00. Complete closureinfo-icon with at least three
hundred people standing in line or behind the plastic barricades,
and a belligerent, dangerous mood among the border policemen unit
from A- Ram that was here to back the soldiers up.

Shadi, the commander of the Qalandya company, immediately
introduced himself. School children with blue IDs were the only
ones who could get through, but they were told to go through the
checkpoint and could not pass on the side path as usual, so their
wait was prolonged, and tempers were high. We witnessed several
very distressed Palestinians reacting emotionally to the soldiers,
who, on their end, were pushing the Palestinians back physically in
almost every interaction we saw. The feeling that the entire place
could erupt in stones, blows and gunfire was strong. Na'ama
confirmed that though the pupils could go through, teachers could
not. We later heard that those teaching for an international
organization would be permitted.

Fares, coordinator of the Beit El DCO, arrived shortly
after we did, and made sincere attempts to improve the situation.
He made sure there were regular announcements in Arabic explaining
today's rules (such as they were), permitted the school children to
go through the side of the checkpoint, and personally let through
two doctors from Augusta Victoria who didn't want to stand in the
exceedingly slow line. At one point the soldiers said they were
holding the line up because some children had thrown "small
stones." We had not seen any, but the feeling was that a lot
was going on at once. The Palestinians also complained of a boy
being beaten by the soldiers at one point. We indeed saw him
detained, but did not witness any blows. A very tense, disturbing
morning.