And how long was your commute this morning?

In New York, we used to bitch about delayed trains.  In Boston, it was the traffic.  In Palestine, it's the checkpoints - and it puts a lot of previous complaining into perspective.

This is from my friend Mohammed's Facebook status.  He's a West Banker who works for one of the most prominent international development agencies (a big recipient of US funding).  Their office is in East Jerusalem, which means every day he has to commute through the Qalandiya checkpoint from Ramallah to occupied East Jerusalem just to get to work.  Being a West Banker, and not a Jerusalem ID holder, he also has to obtain a permit from the Israelis to enter into "Israel" just to go to work, which can take weeks or even months to get.  Here's his story:

"Last week, it took me one hour via 2 fast trains and NO passport control, to cross the French-Spanish  border to get from Biarritz, France to San Sebastian, Spain. The two cities are 51 km apart. Yet, this  morning, on my regular commute to work, it took me 2 hours, 2 buses, 3 identifying documents, my finger prints, metal detectors, three revolving doors, my phone number, being yelled at by an 18 year old, and a 30 minute detention in a closed one square meter room where my only view was of two IF (Israeli army) soldiers feeling up on each other in the control room to get from Ramallah to Jerusalem. The two cities are 16 km apart. To top that, there was a flying checkpoint in Sheikh Jarrah where we, the people in the bus, had to again, provide documentation proving legal status. It’s amazing how Palestinians are forced to normalize this experience in order to be able survive it every day. Why should we have to adjust to injustice?"