From over the loudspeaker, a woman's voice echoes its way through the lines of people. "Women go to aisle number four," she says in Arabic. With that directive, the men and women split up, forming lines to pass through the security check.
One by one, when the red light turns to green, the men from one of their three lines come through the turnstile. Jackets, handbags, and anything in pockets are placed on the conveyor belt for scanning. They step through the metal detector, turn left, and place their identification cards up against a window.
On the other side of the booth built with reinforced concrete and bulletproof glass, a soldier checks the face against the picture, enters the ID number into a computer, and, assuming all is in order, waves the man through. The Palestinian is now in Jerusalem, and since he arrived at the checkpoint from Ramallah, not a hand has been laid on him.
Fake Fendi HandbagsAll along the boundaries between Israel and the Palestinian territories, which are only now being delineated, this is the new reality. While the task of separating Israeli and Palestinian towns is moving methodically toward completion with the security fence, the burden of preventing terrorist infiltration into Israel is falling on the 28 checkpoints similar to this one at Kalandiya that Israel is building to facilitate the flow of people and goods between the two sides.
While the fence is carving out the probable future borders of at least one nation, the hi-tech checkpoints - which bare a resemblance to security facilities in sci-fi movies - are shaping the daily lives of those who cross between them.
"With the fence going ahead, everyone recognizes the importance of the checkpoints," said Brig.-Gen. (res.) Bezalel Triber, who is in charge of planning the crossings. "We must maintain the quality of life as best as possible for the Palestinians, but also make sure to protect our own security."
Striking that balance has proven difficult. Whereas the debate around the fence has centered around Israeli security vs. greater Palestinian land rights, the dispute around the checkpoints is being framed around Israeli security vs. personal Palestinian dignity.
Around Jerusalem alone, some 220,000 people legally cross into and out of Israel every day. When the Jerusalem segment of the fence is completed later this year, commuters will pass through one of 11 new checkpoints being built around the city.
Kalandiya, the largest of the facilities, sees about one-fifth of that traffic. After more than 100 suicide bombers in Israel in the last five years, many of whom came through the less formal checkpoints, the army, though attuned to the burden the security checks place on thousands of innocent Palestinians, does not feel like taking chances.
The new NIS 30 million facility is designed to maximize the thoroughness of the search Palestinians endure before entering Israel while minimizing the degradation.
"The point is to move to full remote control, where no [Israeli] should talk to [a Palestinian] or touch him," Chloe Handags Replica Triber said recently at an interview in the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. "It is more respectful, it's better from a security standpoint and there is no friction between people."
But Palestinians who passed through the Kalandiya checkpoint into Jerusalem were not enthusiastic about the new arrangement. While some acknowledged that the daily grind of going t
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