Abu-Dis, Sawahre 16.1.2004 Watchers: Michal Z, Avital B, Rita M, a team of three from French TV Channel One Abu-Dis The Wall is as dreadful as described by earlier watchers this week. The emotional shock — of being dwarfed by that monstrosity, by sensing with your own body how it blocks all interaction, all life, between the two parts of the town –- is indeed what other Israelis, those who are not active in the left, should be brought to experience. Indeed, we ran into another machsomwatcher who brought a friend. If all of us could bring one friend, preferably a group of friends… We were accompanied by a team from the French TV, but it seemed that every photographer in town was there. The Wall photographs well – its impact is visual as well as visceral. Or is it wishful thinking to believe that the Wall will backfire, like a modern-day Tower of Babel, that such strong photographs – evoking the divided Jerusalem, the Berlin Wall – will really make a difference and finally wake people up?Construction seemed to be halted, or at least slowed down while we were there, still there were many BP present. Hardly any Palestinians were around. We met Helmut from Notre Dame des Douleurs, who said that electricity has been restored and the hospice was now accessible again by car. Though the road is still muddy, it is not the impassable river of mud as it was earlier this week – as reported by yesterday’s MW team, who played a big role in making these changes come about. On the even more deserted other side of the Wall, we took a taxi to Sawahre (see below). On our way back to Abu-Dis, we got off near the Parliament-in-construction, when we saw that two BP jeeps blocked the road and a number of young men were detained on their way to pray at the local mosque. We asked the BP officer, whom we had met last week at Sawahre and was then so proud of his cell-phone computer, to speed up the process. He uttered the recurring sentence: “it is not in my hands”. Though the computer-cellphone was indeed no longer in his hands, the check, by phone, did not take more than 15 minutes. They did not detain any more men while we were watching and filming, and were joined by another team from another French TV channel.Large numbers of men were coming to pray this Friday, as now it is hardly possible to get to the mosque in Jerusalem, and because the mosque had been closed for three days during the construction, we were told. A local man, on the Abu-Dis side, said there had been a curfew for two days during the construction and they were not allowed out of their homes, but this was denied by Itzik, the commanding officer who went by in a jeep on the muddy road, after we crossed the Wall through a narrow space between the old blocks, near the mosque (he did not give us his phone number). Itzik said that only the area near the Wall was closed off during the construction, “to protect the workers”. Sawahre As soon as we got near the checkpoint, we were rudely told to leave by the commanding officer and not to film there. When we insisted on our right to be there and observe, he at least made a phone call to a higher officer, and clarified the matter – the film crew was allowed to film only from beyond the concrete blocks some distance away. When at a later stage they moved some three or four meters beyond those blocks, the officer came running at them, yelling and screaming that he would expel them all together.We, the watchers, were allowed to walk around a bit closer, however we could not approach and speak with five detained men who were held on the other (Bethlehem) side of the checkpoint. They seemed to be there for a long time, when one of them fainted. An ambulance was called, arriving quickly from the Jerusalem side, and the man was taken care of by the medical team. Apparently he had a heart condition. He was let go, after being treated, he did not need hospitalization. In the meantime, the others were also let go. Taxis from Abu Dis moved smoothly, they were hardly checked. Young men coming from Bethlehem, however, were taken out of taxis while their IDs were checked by phone, as the sophisticated cellphone-computer that last week speeded up the check substantially “was broken”. We interfered by gradually and undemonstratively moving closer to the checkpoint, despite the order to stay at a distance, and appealing to the officer: “you have the power to speed up the process, could you please call again…”. Indeed, the last group of detainees had to wait no more than 15 minutes. The barbed wire over the dirt road around the checkpoint is still there, the Sawahre residents of the houses on the other side of the checkpoint claim. It is moved aside during the daytime, to let the garbage trucks on their way to the dump pass, but the residents are not supposed to go by in their cars. We did not call Rafi Amsalem again this week, as they had been told he was ill.