Abu Dis: The little gate is
no more – replaced by a concrete block, apparently the night
before. People are told to go around through the Az Za’ayyem
checkpoint. There are no taxis standing up on the hill, as very few
people are passing through. People do climb on the right side of
those concrete blocks, where improvised steps have been made – it
is easier here than elsewhere on the wall. There was also a BP
standing on top of the wall, near the gas station. There are
several ambushes of border police on the road to Jerusalem. One
gynecologist from Mukassad tells us he has to climb over the wall
and go to work illegally, as he was refused a permit, He risks
being caught again, and being fined.

Two elderly women are passing loads of vegetables in bags
and boxes on the right side of the gate-that-is-no-more, and go and
call a taxi on the western side of the wall, to pick up their
merchandise. This is where we cross the wall, and go to Sawahre.

Sawahre: People are allowed through only if they have
permits or live on the side of the checkpoint that they are going
towards. There seems to be nothing we can do to get anyone else
across – a phone call to Haviv Edri resulted only in his
confirmation of this fact – these are the rules today.

Abu Dis – near gas station: There are several detainees –
we go and find out what is going on and are told by one aggressive
border policeman not to talk to ‘his’ detainees. He says that even
if these men had blue IDs, he would have held them up – as there is
no opening here in the wall – they must go through the Az Za’ayyem
checkpoint. The guard is still standing on top of the wall. Later
the same aggressive BP threatens to give us a ticket for parking
the car ‘in the middle of the road’ – where we stopped in order to
go check out the situation.