Conflict makes life slow for those at border

The ar-Ram checkpoint on the border between Greater Jerusalem and the West Bank was clear. "The block will be at Kalandia," observed my driver. He was right: the sandy verges of the four-lane highway were packed with dusty cars and lorries awaiting the return of their owners who had walked from the one side of the checkpoint to the other.

Parked on the opposite side of the road were yellow taxis with green licence plates and white taxis with yellow plates waiting for walkers from Palestinian-ruled Ramallah who were going to the West Bank or Jerusalem.

Transport is segregated to distinguish between West Bank Palestinians, who cannot enter Jerusalem, and Jerusalemites who, in theory, can travel from Israeli-held areas to tightly controlled Palestinian compartments.

At the Kalandia junction lorries stood nose to tail, waiting their turn to inch forward, drivers determined to cross in cars jostled for position while walkers flowed along in a steady stream. I was there just before noon, half an hour later there would have been rivers of schoolchildren crossing both ways. During these politically perilous treks by six, 10 and 12- year-olds there are often skirmishes between stone-throwing Palestinian boys and nervous 19-year-old Israeli conscripts who fire in the air or over the heads of the crowds.

Vehicles were squeezed into two narrow lanes transformed into obstacle courses by plastic barriers, cement cubes and boulders dragged from the Judean hillsides. An Israeli soldier observed the scene from a watch-tower, while another manned a fortified post. Armed troops crouched among the obstacles. Vehicles waited patiently for their turn in the queue. The tailback of vehicles was not visible from the other side of the checkpoint. It took the soldiers two minutes to wave on cars at the stopping point. I asked two young men how long it had taken them to cross. "Half an hour," the passenger replied. "This is how we must live," the driver said. They had neither been searched nor been asked to show their identity papers. The checkpoint has little or no security value: its purpose is purely political.