Abu DisSeptember 23.2005 AM observers: Mikhal Z, Claire O, Soli P, Rita M (reporting) 9:20 – 13:00the “new gate” – reported earlier, is next to where the gate that was welded with metal plates used to be – that gate has been moved further into the driveway, so that the tractors that work in people’s yards to build the extension of the wall can go through. One of the BP told us there had actually been a gate in the metal frame of the “new gate”, but the Palestinians managed to get rid of it quickly. so now there is an opening, with a very steep slope on the other side – and we heard many elderly people, waiting in line, have slipped and fallen there. there was a jeep with two BPs, two women soldiers and two other male BP who were checking all IDs. Quite a lot of pressure – small children were squeezed in the crowd. The soldiers acted like school teachers: “behave nicely, or nobody will go through.” Young people without permits were denied entry, men and women over 45 could pass, because it was Friday and they are allowed to go to the mosque without special permits. “We are more lenient on Fridays on days when there is no closure” explained one BP. The women soldiers were filling out forms of some of the people going through.One of the soldiers was extremely arrogant. “She wants to go to the hospital? They all want to go to the hospital!! If you go to the Old City, you will find them all there. I was there last week in the Old City and I saw all of them there, with my own eyes (sic).” His assumption is that “they are all lying”. So convinced he was that “they are all lying” that he wanted to deny entry to a woman with her baby who had papers from the hospital with yesterday’s date on it. He said that was not today’s date, it is old. And we pointed out to him that the document said, very clearly, in English, that the woman should return to the hospital the NEXT day – in other words – today. When Amal (Eli Gabai’s second in command) arrives, the pressure is somewhat released – he lets the older people through without checking every single ID. When we return from Sawahre, there is no longer any pressure at the ‘new gate’. At the Pishpash/Monastery: no BP on guard, people pass freely, but occasional BP jeeps go by and check. At the Cliff Hotel: there were no detainees in the yard, like the day Neta reported. One soldier was on the top floor and we yelled out to him “are there any detainees there?” He said “no, none”. At least he knows that we keep track of what is going on there. At the Container: few cars, most pass without any thorough checksnote: the little yellow triangle that is supposed to be a stop sign and used to be hardly visible at knee height, has now been placed on top of one of the concrete blocks – certainly more visible, but it is so dirty and crumpled that there is no way you can see it is a stop sign unless you knew this in advance…… but lessons in humiliation were learned well, and all the drivers stop at the crumpled sign.