Qalandiya
B.S., T.B., S.S. and L.N.
We met at the A-Ram roadblock, where we found a Palestinian couple
with two toddlers, who were not allowed to pass. The border
policemen explained they were only detaining the man, who had
appeared on the Shin-Beth lists, but his wife was free to go, and
it wasn't their fault if she "chose" to stay with her
husband. When we asked – "Would you leave your wife", one
of them enthusiastically answered, "Yes, I would!". We
helped the Palestinian man establish contact with the civil rights
center, and continued on our way to Qalandiya.
At the entrance to the roadblock, the soldier supervising transit
from A-Ram to Qalandiya asked us for ID's and said we couldn't go
in (to Ramallah, presumably). At the end of our shift we
re-encountered this soldier, who was by then much more irritable.
When we heard him shouting at a Palestinian man ("I will bust
your ass!"), we interferred. In the argument that ensued the
soldier repeatedly yelled "I'm up to the balls with their
dignity! This is my roadblock! I'm a good soldier!". At one
point he was so furious that he jumped onto the concrete block
between him and the crowd, with gun in hand. The Palestinian women
pulled the angry man away – it appears the whole incident started
when this man told the soldier not to address his wife directly,
and asked him to talk to him only. Some of the people told us there
had been quite a few incidents with this soldier over the previous
days.
At the roadblock itself there were hundreds of people in
line
, many of them women and children festivly dressed for the holiday,
carrying food and gifts. There were more soldiers than usual, it
turned out the outfit had been reinforced. Upon arrival we
encounterd a woman, aged about 35, standing there with tears in her
eyes, while the angry soldiers complained she had been
"stuck" there for a long time, and wouldn't go back
though she was told she couldn't pass. She explained that she lived
in A-Ram, and had only visited Ramallah for a few hours. We asked
the sergeant in charge if he could do something – he agreed and
took her ID for checking, but then said that his shift was over,
and that he had handed over her case, and ID, to the new sergeant.
At this stage we spent a half hour trying to find out what had
happened to this woman's ID – it turned out one of the soldiers had
taken it, being personally annoyed at her after she "tried to
escape on him". The ID being returned, she was sent behind the
"New-Jersey" barrier, along with other people who had
been refused passage.
At this stage an officer (who wouldn't tell us his name) and a
sergeant called Itamar got involved. Both of them let many people
pass during their shift after the other soldiers had refused to –
inlcuding the woman from A-Ram. Itamar was calm and patient
throughout the shift, and we applied to him repeatedly – one
instance was the case of a woman with six little children standing
behind the "New-Jersey" barrier, who was allowed to pass
without waiting in line. The officer initially tried to send us
away from the roadblock itself to the "New-Jersey"
barrier, he spent his first half hour on duty trying to get the
crowded area "clean", but after a while desisted, and
ended up helping quite a few people, even though the soldiers
complained that he was "undermining their
authority".
The atmosphere in general was tense, with two soldiers being
especially hard on the Palestinians, talking to them very
disrespectfully, and waging personal vendettas agains those who had
annoyed them. They repeated the ridiculous request – "Don't
drive me nuts!". The most absurd moment was when one of the
soldiers insisted that the children pick up candy wrappings (Sima
was handing out candy because of the holiday).
It should be noted, that quite a few people who hadn't been refused
passage because they didn't have the right permits, eventually did
pass because of their insistence. Those who wouldn't budge and
"pestered" the soldiers long enough did get through.
Again we heard soldiers sending people to Surda (a two hour detour,
costing about 30 shekels). The soldiers tell people who weren't
allowed to pass at Qalandiya that they will be able to pass as
Surda. When asked about the logic of this, they say – "They
won't pass here, these are our instructions. It is my job to make
sure they don't pass at Qalandiya!"
We heard two soldiers, one of them actually among the
"difficult" ones, talking about the pointlessness of the
roadblock in terms of security. They were quite aware that anyone
who really wants to pass there will find the way, and ultimately –
though they didn't say as much – the place is merely another part
of the systematic harassment and humiliation of
Palesitinians.
At some point, a 50 year old woman approached me and shook my hand,
saying, in English – "I only want to say thank-you". The
only answer I could think of was – "I only want to say I'm
sorry".