'Atara, Qalandiya, Sun 9.11.08, Afternoon

15:15- On the right side of
road number 60 to the north, a little bit after the turn to Ofra, we
saw a line of cars that was curving slowly like a sank, but we couldn't
see its head.

We got out of the vehicle and
walked towards the fence that closes on the village Siluad and prevent
its residents from coming to the high way. A transit driver that saw
us told us where we could find a breach in the fence and enter the village.
At the end of the long line we found a checkpoint. We hopped over the
fences, climbed the rocks and felt like the founders of Reashon Lezions
who cried: "We found water!", We cried: "We
found a checkpoint".

But according to the army's
definition this is (merely) a blockage.  

For the Palestinians it doesn't
mater how we call it,  their daily reality is that it takes them
much more time to get back home for no good reason. The pretext is that
they must show their license, allow armed strangers feel them and pried
in their personal possessions, answer the soldiers nagging questions,
such as: "where are you heading" or "how are you",
ruin their engines while waiting on a steep slope with the car and 
all the time being friendly to the soldiers so that they don't think
them rude and punish them.

The soldiers from the unit
Kfir, who didn’t' say much to us, would only tell us that for the
time being this is where the blockage is going to be.

• A driver that was
  on his way back to Ramala, on the road that goes beneath the high way,
  said that earlier he had to wait an hour to enter Siluad. We counted
  30 cars that were waiting.
• 15:35- When we were
  on our way back we saw three soldier from the blockage carrying luggage
  on their backs and entering the pillbox on top of the hill near by,
  and tens of car headed on without disturbance.

Atara checkpoint:

15:50- The checkpoint commander
hurried towards us, he demanded that we take our vehicle away from where
we usually park it and asked that we don't "hang about" in
the checkpoint. We did as he asked.

The soldiers worked quickly
and we didn't see any extraordinary events. But it felt as though they
were working without coordination amongst themselves: They were mostly
busy checking vehicles only from one of the four directions. When a
jam was formed at one of the other lines they allowed the vehicles from
that direction to pass without an inspection and then headed to inspect
the vehicles from a different side. They asked all the passenger of
the transits to get of and stand nicely in a straight line by the side
of the checkpoint. From previous observations we can assume that this
is a normal procedure at this place.

Someone pulled out a camera
and wouldn't stop taking photos of us.

When we left one of the soldiers
came to us and said: "Just so you know, when you are here it
take the Arabs three times longer to pass". We asked him to
explain how it was possible, he wouldn't answer and just kept taking
photos.  

Qalandiya checkpoint:

17:00- The rubbish and neglect
were everywhere. What happened to the "grandiose" terminal
and the shinning human pens that were placed at the entrance, upon which
loads of garbage is piling up? Do they really call this a boarder crossing? 

• Two inspection posts
  were open while we were there. There wasn't much pressure at the line,
  it's more likely that it is because of the small number of passers then
  the efficiency of the soldiers.
• At the vehicle lane
  we saw a group of car with guests heading to a wedding at Ramala,
  their cars were decorated with flowers and ribbons. When they recognized
  us standing by the side of the checkpoint they opened their windows
  and waved at us, we waved back. One of the women sent us a kiss and
  we greeted them and said: Mazal Tuv and Mabruk.