At the gasoline station are
three border policemen, one on the roof, two before the wall. They
said there would be a complete closure between the territories and
Israel/Jerusalem. Indeed, from 0615 until at least 0730 nobody was
touching the wall in front of the station and the policemen, but
anyone athletic enough was climbing to Jerusalem over that part of
the wall which is near the mosque and the university. The people
who made it were not subject to further control. On our way back to
the gasoline station after having visited the hotel plot we saw
children trying to climb the blocks in front of the station. We
tried to help, but succeeded only with those who seemed to be at
least 10 to 12 years old. The younger ones could not make it.

The hotel: 8 huge trucks with big trailers were going up
the hill, crossing the hotel’s property , disappearing behind the
Moskovitz hill. One could hardly make it because the policemen were
not able to open the gate properly. It took them about half an hour
to manage.

Pishpash: The gate is closed with a huge concrete block.
Nobody around except one desperate father of a little girl who was
asking us if we would know where his little one could cross the
wall to reach her school. For the first time we saw a soldier on
the property of the monastery besides the street to the gate.

Beth Faji On the right side of the street from Abu Dis to
the Mount of Olives there is a path to the monastery Beth Faji and
to Wadi Naar. There is no permanent checkpoint there, and it used
to be a passage to get through when all other possibilities were
blocked. When we arrived at about 0745, there were about 50 people
walking on the path to Jerusalem. All of a sudden a jeep with two
BP arrived, blocking their way from a distance of about 50 meters.
With a microphone one of them was shouting “move back”,
while the other had breakfast. None of them left the Jeep to see if
there were humanitarian cases among the waiting Palestinians. A
woman with small children was calling that she was going to see a
doctor with a sick child. Another was pregnant and was ordered to
the hospital. A teacher was telling me that he came all the way
long from Bethlehem over Wadi Naar, from where he was walked.
Others came from Ramallah. Our various phone calls were
unsuccessful.