Abu Dis & Sawahre Wednesday 19 January 2005 AMObservers: Rachel M., Tamar M., & Ruthi R. (reporting) Shift – from 06:45 to 08:30Abu Dis – The street was deserted. It was early and very cold. We walkedup to the Cliff Hotel, it’s now surrounded by a fence, as well as the areawhere once it was possible to cross from the village to the centre (thepetrol station area). Several of the hotel’s windows have been broken. TheMoskovitz villa is shuttered, and there’s is a guard post on the roof. ABorder Police vehicle drove up and we were immediately asked to move ourcar. Why? Because. (It’s not a military area, explains a soldier – butalmost military).Near the Pishpash Gate – A few cars are parked, several people are crossingthrough the monastery, in a hurry, not looking to the sides. Empty. By theschool, I asked my usual question and someone we know told us that today wasa holiday. That’s why the street was so empty. Again I notice that peoplearen’t dressed warmly enough – children, women and men. A Border Policevehicle appears and we are told to move the car. Ours is the only carparked on the street. And they don’t even wait to see that we carry outtheir order.At the Ma’ale Adumim checkpoint – No detainees, quite a long line of cars,crossing very slowly.The road to Sawahre was empty, we crossed the first pipe checkpoint andright away a Border Police jeep appeared to our rear, and closed us off.They closed the second checkpoint after we crossed and when we asked howwe’d return, they said with a laugh not to worry, it’s not really closed,it’s all for show, they’re not really locking, there isn’t even a lock, it’ssupposed to be locked until 09:00 and then we open. The arbitrariness ofthis was shocking. The area at the entrance to Sawahre checkpoint wasclosed. One can only enter via a gate that has been placed there.There were no pedestrians, a few cars which crossed rapidly. We weren’tallowed to get close to the checkpoint, but had to stand 100 metres away -actually 4 metres would have been enough, the main thing was to distance us.H., from the District Coordination Office, wasn’t welcoming. It was verycold. We stayed only a short time.