Qalandiya

A rough morning at Qalandiya.

05.15. When we arrived, there were relatively few people on the Israel side for a Ramadan morning. As we approached the checkpoint we saw people coming out in dribs and drabs. On entering we found almost no people at the checking stations themselves, but enormously long lines stretching out of the shed. At that moment the turnstiles opened and people passed towards the checking stations, but long lines remained outside.

Inside we saw that only 3 checking stations were open. At one point the soldier in the aquarium announced in Arabic that checking station no.5 was open and empty, but soon after another station closed.  For a long time nos.3 and 4 were closed. We phoned twice and were told they would check, but to no avail. People in line complained, saying that yesterday ‘was okay,’ almost empty. But today, perhaps because only 3 stations were working, checking was very slow, and there was a long wait between each opening of the turnstile and the next. It was only a matter of time before the lines would collapse, which of course they did (a moment after a group of women entered the leftmost cage).

Today, too, we had arranged to meet M., a cancer patient from the Jordan valley, to take him to Hadassah hospital, and had planned with him to pass through at 7 o’clock .Today he arrived as a pedestrian and went to wait at the humanitarian gate. Meanwhile many others arrived at the gate, and we lost sight of M.  Soon after 6 a.m., the soldier in the aquarium was replaced by a woman soldier, and at long last a fourth checking station was opened and, finally, the fifth.

The ‘humanitarian gate’ opened only at 6.30, when there were already many waiting. Meanwile, we chatted with one of the teachers who come there regularly. He was interested in Jewish history, in the Kuzari, etc.  The D.C.O. soldier and guard operated the gate, sorting out who was entitled to pass. Of three women on their way to pray at Al-Aksa, two younger ones had permits, but the older woman with would be able to enter only at 8.  The younger women decided to wait with her. A bit later the soldier relented and let all three through.

At about 7.15 the lines were once again more or less orderly, thanks to a few older men who controlled the younger ones. Today we approached the guard to help us pass avoiding the lines, as we had done last week, because M. had been waiting for us already on the Israeli side. We met him at the parking lot. Traffic conditions were not too bad and we could reach Hadassah in reasonable time. We parted from M. at Machon Sharett with our wishes for good health.