If you think the IDF is hysterical and that  they  have to protect our soldier clerks in the offices, today we saw that we still have a way to go. The army had the whole week to think up new ways….note the barbed wire which has been added to the new fence…the army probably will add barbed wire inside which the Palestinians have to climb over.

Today there were two windows open…..next time there will probably be just  one and the second soldier will guard  at the new gate. Shlomit asks if we are living in a mad house. Maybe that would be preferable. For over 20 years none of this was necessary. And we can rest assured that the army is also saving us money. The turnstile is in darkness as you can see and the Palestinians must try to maneuver themselves in. No wonder that one man coming out said bitterly that there is no respect.

We were told by one man who came out that there were over 50 people in the offices. It was so crowded that it was impossible to stand there. Never having been inside we cannot comment. He said that the soldiers ask rhetorical questions….to which they probably know the answers. For example, how many people there are in the family, etc, etc. They type very slowly and what should take 10 minutes takes up to 20 minutes for one magnetic card to be issued.

We gave a man a lift as we know him from Ricardo where he tries selling his goods. How much success he has one does not know. But in the bitter cold he does his best.  As we came near the grocery shop which is near the circle, we saw a long line of  cars  waiting one behind the other. We asked our passenger to get out and walk the rest of the way as we did not want the soldiers asking questions. We saw many cars turning around and going back to the main road.  We have no idea what the reason was for this but there were three shaders with rifles standing there and checking cars. We wanted to photograph but you don’t play around with our trigger happy soldiers, two of whom had their rifles aimed straight at us. We asked what was happening but were told to drive on.  As we came up to the circle we saw that there was complete chaos in every direction.  There were cars ahead of us and cars behind us, the road coming up from Jerusalem, the road leaving down to the checkpoint of Beit Jala, the road coming down  from Everest,  the restaurant,  everything was blocked. It took us more than 30 minutes to extricate ourselves. At the grocery store they said that they knew of nothing untoward which had happened. One wonders if, once again, it was a case of bored soldiers making life more difficult for the Palestinians.