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Abu Dis, Container (Wadi Nar), Thu 6.3.08, Morning

Place: Abu Dis / Lazarus gate (formerly The Wicket) Container (Wadi Nar)
Observers: Netanya G., Shira V. (reporting)
Mar-06-2008
| Morning

06:50 Wadi Naar

The checkups were more thorough this morning than usual. We had the empression the BP force was larger than the usual.


Almost all vehicles that contained passengers (vans, taxis, buses) were stopped and requsted to stop on the side of the road for the documents of the passengers to be checked. The rest of the taxis and the vans were requested to show the IDs of the drivers at least, and very few went through without any checkup (all athe few vehicles who came from  the north, and very few who arrived from the south). This throughness is very unique on the background of what we usually see lately in the morning time.

 

The checkups were very efficient, and meticulous. Vehicles waited up to 15 minutes. At any given moment there were detained vehicles, at a certain moment we counted even six vehicles detained.

 
A bus full with passengers going towards Sawahara-el-Sharkiye was requested to stope aside, and a sample of IDs was taken from the passengers for checkup. The bus too was sent on his way within fifteen minutes. 

 
At some point a boy was taken from one of the transits into the shed of the checkpoint. We saw the soldiers open his bag and take him aside. The other passengers of the van claimed that he is a boy of 18 who had forgotten his ID. Later we saw him talk on his cell-phone (we asken him about it later), and a few minutes later he was released and joined the van he traveled that left towards iots original destination.

 
The stench of the nearby municipal garbage ditch was felt every once in a while.

 
08:00 We left the place.

  • Abu Dis / Lazarus gate (formerly The Wicket)

    See all reports for this place

    •  

      Abu Dis / Lazarus Checkpoint/Gate (east of the former “wicket”)

      Construction of the wall in the Abu Dis area blocked all the gaps that allowed people to cross from al-Ezariya to the neighbourhoods of Abu Dis and Ras al 'Amud that are located within Jerusalem’s municipal boundary. The Lazarus checkpoint is a gate in the wall adjacent to the Lazarus Monastery. Until 2011 it had a door for pilgrims to al-Ezariya and for the monastery’s kindergarten pupils from al-Ezariya. The crossing is currently closed, but the site has infrastructure for conducting inspections.

  • Container (Wadi Nar)

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    •  Wadi Nar Checkpoint ("Container", "The Kiosk") - a barrier for vehicles in Area B that is regularly manned - east of Abu Dis between Sawahra A Sharqiya and Bethlehem and its daughters. Controls Palestinian movement between the north and south West-Bank. Includes driving routes, access roads, spikes, traffic lights and signs. There is no pedestrian crossing. Open 24 hours a day with random checks enhanced on security alerts. The checkpoint is in Palestinian territory, allowing for separation between the north and the south Palestinian areas when necessary.

      In 2015, the leading road from Azaria to Bethlehem was renovated, as well as the steep and narrow ascent to the Wadi Nar checkpoint, which was dangerously travelled in both directions! The temporary checkpoint was renovated and expanded, and pedestrian traffic was banned. From 2016, traffic travelling from the south bank to Azaria was directed to a one-way road near the Southern Keydar Jewish settlement.

      Machsomwatch shifts visit this far-fetched checkpoint only occasionally.

      (updated to July 2019)

       

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