0630. Two border policemen
were guarding the wall near the gasoline station, so nobody was
climbing over it. There was nobody on the hotel grounds. A neighbor
said that Israeli electricians had removed the electric overhead
cables, presumably to accommodate the wall. She said the hotel is
now rented to Al Quds University.

0700: Schoolchildren were passing through and over the wall. Then a
couple of soldiers started to check papers, and a jeep arrived, and
they constructed another small obstruction.

0715: The gate (whose name in the army apparently is “khasam
beit shoftim”) was closed, the bars of the door wrapped in
wires. Many people were waiting to pass towards Jerusalem. People
headed to Abu Dis could cross over a pile of stones on the right
side of the wall. Among the people was a sick older man, headed to
hospital, but

the closure, temporarily, was total. Still, the young commander let
the older man pass. An 8 years old boy was carried by his father on
his arms. The border policeman immediately opened the gate for
him.

0815: The border police threatened the crowd with teargas if they
did not leave– and so they did! One soldier said that at Beit
Fragi was another checkpoint where “humanitarian cases”
could more easily pass. We took an

elderly gentlemen to this place. Back at the gasoline station the
border police for five minutes allowed women with a

lot of goods and in costume climb over and through the wall, but
then they closed again.