Qalandiya - Long lines
This morning there were lines
We arrived at 6:00 a.m. and parked on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint in the large pay parking lot. After a short visit with the bagel seller, who was there with his grandson, we continued onward to the bottom of the steps leading into the checkpoint building. After a few minutes we saw approaching us three EAPPI volunteers (a program run by the World Council of Churches). We were happy to see them, as we literally hadn't met them in years and thought their program had been cancelled. However, they explained that due to Israel's rules regarding the pandemic, they were not able to enter the country until just a few weeks ago. They gave us a card with contact details for their program, and we in turn invited one of them to photograph the slip giving contact details for Sylvia's team to share in case they are approached by Palestinians who need help with permits on days when they are at the checkpoint and we are not.
Twice during the shift we saw long lines build up at the three entrances to the building because the turnstiles had not been opened. It reminded us of the bad old days at the old Qalandia checkpoint. As in those days, we did not know why the turnstiles were not opened more frequently, which is the usual policy. Also, the turnstiles of all three entrances were opened and closed simultaneously, which is also a departure from the usual policy. At first we thought the lines were long because more people turned up this morning as it was Sunday and the lines are always long on Sunday (which is the beginning of the work week in Israel). Or perhaps there was a new group of soldiers working this shift who had not yet learned how to operate the turnstiles efficiently. At all events, each time the three turnstiles were opened, they remained so until all the people on line had passed through. Since we were parked on the Palestinian side and did not go through the security check, we could not judge the effect of this strange system on the rest of the flow during the security-check.
We returned via the Hizma checkpoint and fortunately did not run into a traffic jam on the Hizma Road, which is prone to such jams at this hour of the morning.