Morning

At 7.00 a.m. E-ram checkpoint was moving fast. When we reached Qalandya, we were approached by a young man who said he had been beaten on Sunday morning by a soldier who had ordered him and 4 others to move a huge concrete block. He had refused as he has recently had an operation. His story was confirmed by another man. There has apparently been conflict with the military who want the taxi owners to move their vans from the (convenient and non-obstructing) corner where they currently are parked. We gave them the phone number of the Moked.It took 15 minutes to pass the checkpoint going north. The line going south was very long (actually there were 2 parallel lines, but we were able to watch the closer of them). Most of the time there was only one - old - soldier checking the passes, politely but very slowly. Way back in line were women with very young children and doctors trying to get to Augusta Victoria. We made some phone-calls - perhaps this is the reason that a second soldier was added, which speeded up the checking. A roll of barbed wire has been set at the northern end of the checkpoint across the path where northbound pedestrians pass. This makes their passage more irksome and also gives the impression of an alternate checkpoint, especially as there were 2 soldiers standing at that gap. So a number of Palestinians, especially people with babies gathered there to get through. And, in fact, the more persuasive ones did manage to do so.