Bismillah,

An American travels through Check Points in Phalasteen

We stayed last night in the friendly Hebron Hostel in the old city of Jerusalem, which for 25NIS a night, you really can't beat. Even cheaper than Turkey! The staff there was quite friendly and the tea quite tasty. We woke up this morning at 8:30 and walked a short distance to the East Jerusalem bus station (which services all points in the West Bank.

We were under the impression that Ramallah was an hour bus ride, but in reality, we reached Qalandya checkpoint in a mere 15-20 minutes. (Qalandya is the refugee camp outside Ramallah).

Entering through the checkpoint from the E. Jerusalem side is easy: no passport checks, no guards, just a quick walk through a turnstile and your in. Getting out is the hard part(as we found out later).

Instead of taking a shared cab from Qalandya to Ramallah city center, we chose to walk instead. The hour-long walk took us through a mix of run-down neighborhoods, and small mechanical shops. We passed the UNRWA school for Qalandya as well. As we neared the city center, things started to hustle and bustle much more (as can be expected in all the Arab cities I've been to).

The street vendors were out, the traffic was bad, and the fruit and vegetable market was bumpin'. We walked around the city for a bit, then settled in at the Palestine Coffee Shop for some tea and coffee (this place came recommended in my guidebook).

It was packed, unfortunatly for the ladies, entirely with old men playing cards and chain-smoking cigarettes and nargilas. After the initial shock of our enterance, people ignored us, though one guy had a little conversation with me, communicating that his sons were in New Jersey and Detroit.

Except for the occassional kids who would shout things in Arabic at us, almost everyone who said anything to us at all said "Welcome" and "Where are you from", though it seemed that most of the people of Ramallah don't really speak English. We ate at a falafel place which was quite good, though I think we got the gringo price (which I don't mind paying here).

Then we went in search of the government compound that Arafat was sieged in by Israel during the last years of his life (he is also buried there). I kept pronouncing the place as the "mugata", but we later found out it was "mukarta". We took a cab ride there and visited Arafat's tomb. I heard you could go to areas of the compound that were shelled by IDF during the siege, but we were redirected towards the exit by Palestinian military officials.

We took a cab back to the checkpoint, which we later found out is the most notorious checkpoint in all of the West Bank. We walked along the seperation wall for a while and snapped some pictures, etc... There was a small protest, with the focus on allowing children to get to there schools without having to go through checkpoints everyday. There were also some people from Machsom Watch (Machsom means checkpoint), an international group of women who observe soldiers' actions at checkpoints.

Like I said, entering the checkpoint was a cinch, but trying get back through... The first thing we noticed was the bottleneck of cars trying to get through, the average wait is two or three hours. Then we walked through this cattle-line area, where we queued up to go through the first turnstile. There were three turnstiles, which were electronically activated (meaning you can't move through utill the border police hit the button).

There was no rhyme or reason to getting through the turnstile, you just tried to push your way up to the front. Once through the turnstile, you queued again for the passport check. While we were waiting in the first line, a woman told us her son has autism and that he has to go to Jerusalem everyday for his schooling. She goes to get him every day through the checkpoint, and she generally waits between two and three hours a day. There were some elderly people who were allowed through faster (there is a little gate to the side of the turnstiles), and some women with small children got to the front a little faster. We probably waited 1-1.5 hours at the checkpoint.

As Americans, they barely glanced at our passports before waving us through (the soldiers actually seemed to want to strike up conversation with us while all these people were waiting to get through).

For the Palestinians, it was another story. That day, for one reason or another, they were turning away people with Green cards (meaning West Bank) and only allowing people through with blue (East Jerusalem) cards. So after all that waiting, some people had to turn around and walk back through again.

After getting through we walked another mile or two along the wall to the second checkpoint (yes, another), which was mainly for cars. The cars that had to wait two or three hours had to wait what looked to be another one hour. There wasn't much of a foot line, and we were through in a few minutes. From there it was a 3 Sheckel, ten minute ride back to Jerusalem, and the day was over.

If for nothing else I'm glad I got to experience the checkpoint procedure. I can't imagine how it would feel to try and go through this everyday, or to try to visit a relative in another part of the country, or to experience what this woman did with her son. To have soldiers aiming machine guns at your chest as you cross from one point to another everyday...

this is an experience everyone with an interest in this conflict should have...

check back in a few days for pictures.

see you in a few weeks,

d

His name is Dave Stone,

Salaamu Alaykum